6~.  10.2^1 

LIBRARY  OF  THE  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 

PRINCETON,  N.  J. 

Presented  by 

Division LaJC^  , 

Section....LcLLC'  . 


Digitized  by  tine  Internet  Archive 

in  2011  witii  funding  from 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


http://www.archive.org/details/legendofchristmaOOjack 


THE  LEGEND  OF  THE  CHRISTMAS  ROSE 


The  Legend  of  the 
Christmas  Rose 

FIVE      CHRISTMAS      PAINTINGS 
AND  THEIR  INTERPREl'ATIONS 


,/BY 

HENRY  E.  JACKSON,  M.A. 

AUTHOR   OF    *«  BENJAMIN  WEST,   HIS  LIFE  AND  WORk' 

"GREAT  PICTURES  AS  MORAL  TEACHERS,"  "THE 

MESSAGE      OF     THE      MODERN      MINISTER*' 

"  THE   MEANING   OF    THE   CROSS  " 

"  THE    NEW   CHIVALRY  " 


HODDER  &  STOUGHTON 

NEW  YORK 

GEORGE  H.  DORAN  COMPANY 


Copyright,   1 914 
By  George  H.  Doran  Company 


TO  THE  BEST  OF  ALL  INTERPRETERS 

OF   THE    CHRISTMAS    SPIRIT, 

MY  LITTLE  CHILDREN, 

ROBERT  AND  RUTH. 


"There's  a  song  in  the  air! 
There's  a  star  in  the  sky ! 
There's  a  mother's  deep  prayer. 
And  a  baby's  low  cry ! 
And  the  star  rains  its  fire  while  the  Beautiful  sing, 
For  the  manger  of  Bethlehem  cradles  a  King! 

"There's  a  tumult  of  joy 
O'er  the  wonderful  birth, 
For  the  Virgin's  sweet  boy 
Is  the  Lord  of  the  earth ! 
Aye !  the  star  rains  its  fire,  and  the  Beautiful  sing, 
For  the  manger  of  Bethlehem  cradles  a  King ! 

"In  the  light  of  that  Star 
Lie  the  ages  impearled; 
And  that  song  from  afar 
Has  swept  over  the  world. 
Every  heart  is  aflame,  and  the  Beautiful  sing, 
In  the  homes  of  the  nations  that  Jesus  is  King." 

— /.  G.  Holland. 


[6] 


THE  PAINTINGS 

PAGE 

I.     The  Legend  OF  THE  Christmas  Rose 15 

By  Alfred  Kitchens. 

II.    The  Virgin's  Dream 43 

By  Alfred  Bramtot. 

III.  The  Arrival  of  the  Shepherds 61 

By  Henri  Lerolle. 

IV.  The  Evening  Hymn  to  the  Virgin 79 

By  William  A.  Bouguereau. 

V.     The  Arrival  at  Bethlehem 97 

By  Luc-Olivier  Merson. 


[7] 


"Two  sorrie  Thynges  there  be — 
Ay,  three; 
A  Neste  from  which  ye  FledgUngs  have  been  taken, 

A  Lambe  forsaken, 
A  redde  leaf  from  ye  Wilde  Rose  rudely  shaken. 

"Of  gladde  Thynges  there  be  more — 
Ay,  four; 
A  Larke  above  ye  olde  Nest  blythely  singing, 

A  Wilde  Rose  clinging 
In  safety  to  a  Rock :  a  Shepherde  bringing 
A  Lambe,  found,  in  his  armes,  and  Chrystemasse 
Bells  a-ringing." 

— Old  English  Song. 


[8] 


THE    INTERPRETATIONS 

PAGE 

I.    Roses  that  Bloom  at  Christmas 17 

II.    The  Anticipation  of  Christmas 45 

III.  The  Loneliness  of  Christmas 63 

IV.  The  Music  of  the  First  Christmas 81 

V.     Making  Room  for  Christmas 99 


[9] 


PREFACE 

A  rosebush  produces  thorns:  it  also  pro- 
duces roses.  One  may  complain  because  thorns 
accompany  roses,  or  he  may  rejoice  because 
roses  accompany  thorns.  What  one  sees  in  a 
rosebush  depends  most  of  all  on  whether  he  is 
looking  for  thorns  or  for  roses. 

The  Christmas  festival,  more  than  any  other, 
compels  one  to  think  of  roses  rather  than  of 
thorns.  Whatever  thorns  accompany  the 
Christian  view  of  life,  the  ultimate  test  of  its 
worth  is  the  kind  of  roses  it  produces.  Of  all 
the  roses  that  have  bloomed  in  history  for  the 
refreshment  of  the  human  spirit,  certainly  the 
best,  by  common  consent,  are  those  grown  in 
the  soil  of  the  Christmas  garden.  From  this 
garden  the  author  has  gathered  five  which  he 
considers  the  most  beautiful. 

The  Christmas  rose,  reproduced  in  the  first 
painting  and  described  in  the  first  chapter,  al- 
though one  of  Nature's  wonders,  is  significant 
chiefly  because  it  is  a  symbol  of  something  more 
beautiful  than  itself.  It  is  used  here  as  a  sym- 
bol of  sentiments  whose  seeds  were  planted  at 
the  first  Christmas  to  grow  in  human  hearts. 

In  plain  words,  these  five  chapters  seek  to 
[II] 


PREFACE 

unfold  at  least  five  of  the  fundamental  ideas 
that  have  made  Christmas  what  it  is.  They 
constitute  the  real  spirit  of  Christmas  and  em- 
body its  rich  meaning  for  human  life.  All 
that  the  author  has  done  is  to  furnish  a  vase 
for  this  little  cluster  of  five  Christmas  roses, 
and  to  arrange  them  in  it  as  best  he  could. 

While  he  sincerely  wishes  that  the  vase  was 
more  worthy  of  the  flowers,  yet  the  roses 
themselves  have  given  such  good  cheer  to  his 
own  heart,  that  he  offers  them  to  others  in  the 
hope  that  their  beauty  and  fragrance  may 
bring  comfort  to  the  lonely  and  courage  to  the 
disheartened.  The  need  to  decorate  life  with 
a  touch  of  beauty  and  brighten  it  with  a  touch 
of  joy  is  universal.  The  roses  here  presented 
are  designed  to  meet  this  need,  because  they 
can  be  grown  in  the  friendly  soil  of  any  human 
heart,  and  like  the  famous  rose  of  the  legend, 
they  continue  to  bloom  whatever  the  external 
wintry  conditions  may  be. 

Henry  E.  Jackson. 

Montclair,  N.  J. 


[12] 


THE    LEGEND    OF   THE   CHRISTMAS 
ROSE 

From  a  Painting  by  Alfred  Kitchens 

The  original  of  this  picture  is  owned  by  Mr.  Charles 
G.  Phillips,  and  is  at  present  in  the  Christian  Union 
Congregational  Church  of  Upper  Montclair,  Nezv 
Jersey.  The  photograph  from  which  the  cut  was  made 
is  published  by  the  Berlin  Photographic  Company, 
New  York. 


[13] 


"In  the  bleak  midwinter 

Frosty  winds  made  moan, 
Earth  stood  hard  as  iron, 

Water  like  a  stone. 
Snow  had  fallen,  snow  on  snow. 

Snow  on  snow. 
In  the  bleak  midwinter 

Long  ago. 

"Enough  for  Him  whom  cherubim 

Worship  night  and  day, 
A  breastful  of  milk 

And  a  mangerful  of  hay ; 
Enough  for  Him  whom  angels 

Fall  down  before, 
The  ox  and  ass  and  camel 

Which  adore. 

"What  can  I  give  Him, 

Poor  as  I  am? 
If  I  were  a  shepherd 

I  would  bring  a  lamb. 
If  I  were  a  wise  man 

I  would  do  my  part, 
Yet  what  I  can  I  give  Him : 

Give  my  heart." 

— Christina  Rossetti. 


[14] 


THE  LEGEND  OF  THE  CHRISTMAS  ROSE 
By  Alfred  Hitchens 


INTERPRETATION— ROSES  THAT 
BLOOM  AT  CHRISTMAS 


[17] 


"The  Winter  is  a  time  of  Hope, 
A  time  when  hearts  are  Hghted  up : 
Hey-ho  for  the  mistletoe, 
The  silver  frosts  and  the  white  snow ! 
For  at  the  core  of  winter  hes 
The  hidden  heavenly  mysteries. 
When  Robin  sings  on  a  bare  thorn, 
Then  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord  is  born. 

"Who  sighed  for  Summer  and  the  rose? 
A  Rose  is  born  in  frost  and  snows : 
Hey-ho  for  the  holly  red ! 
Christ  is  laid  in  the  cattle's  bed. 
Hey-ho  for  the  Yule-log  brown ! 
Christ  is  born  in  Bethlehem  town. 
The  Winter  gathers  for  her  own 
The  sweetest  Rose  was  ever  blown." 

— Katharine  Tynan. 


[i8] 


ROSES  THAT  BLOOM  AT  CHRISTMAS 

IF  the  last  rose  of  summer  touches  man's 
heart  with  tender  regret  for  nature's 
parting  gift  of  beauty,  the  first  rose  of 
winter  refreshes  it  with  unexpected  com- 
fort. Roses  in  mid-winter  seem  as  strange  as 
snow  in  mid-summer.  When  nature  produces 
winter  roses  she  appears  to  be  playing  the  role 
of  a  magician.  True,  it  puzzles  our  sense  of 
the  fitness  of  things,  and  yet  it  is  not  a  fairy 
tale  but  a  fact,  that  there  are  roses  which  do 
grow  in  the  snow.  The  more  one  becomes  fa- 
miliar with  nature's  inexhaustible  power  of 
adaptation,  the  more  one  feels  that  winter 
roses,  while  unexpected,  are  not  at  all  sur- 
prising. 

The  name  of  the  winter  rose  is  helleborus 
niger,  so  called  because  of  its  black  root.  The 
common  name  with  which  it  has  been  christ- 
ened is  much  more  beautiful ;  it  is  the  ''Christ- 
mas rose."  It  blooms  from  November  until 
March,  and  blooms  under  a  blanket  of  snow. 
It  is  hardy  as  far  north  as  New  York  state. 

[19] 


THE    LEGEND    OF    THE    CHRISTMAS    ROSE 

The  flowers  are  waxy  white,  five-petaled,  and 
from  two  to  five  inches  across.  The  plant  bears 
but  one  leaf.  The  petals  contain  nectar  for 
insects.  The  flowers  never  wither,  but  turn 
pink  and  then  greenish  before  they  drop  from 
the  stem.  Among  the  varieties  of  the  Christ- 
mas rose,  the  tallest  and  earliest  to  bloom  is 
altifolius.  Its  flowers  are  the  largest  and  have 
a  slight  fragrance. 

This  flower  has  for  us  the  same  charm  as  the 
edelweiss,  blooming  amidst  eternal  snow  and 
well  deserving  its  name,  "noble-white,"  because 
it  likewise  achieves  its  bloom  and  beauty 
through  conflict  with  hardship.  Every  one 
who  has  ever  seen  a  Christmas  rose  shares 
instinctively  the  feeling  expressed  by  the  poet 
Mackay, 

"Though  we  bless  the  flower  of  June, 
And  all  its  charms  remember, 
We've  double  blessings  for  the  rose 
That  blossoms  in  December." 

The  Christmas  rose  is  such  an  unusual  gift 
of  nature,  that  primitive  and  simple-hearted 
folk  thought  they  could  account  for  its  exist- 
ence only  by  appealing  to  a  miracle.  It  is  this 
motive  that  gave  birth  to  the  legend  founded 
upon  the  winter  rose.    The  legend  is  an  attempt 

[20] 


ROSES    THAT    BLOOM    AT    CHRISTMAS 

to  explain  what  seems  to  be  one  of  nature's  mir- 
acles. 

The  story  centers  about  a  little  flower  girl, 
very  poor,  who  was  the  first  girl  to  visit  the 
Christ-Child  when  he  was  cradled  in  Bethle- 
hem's manger.  In  the  English  story  she 
bears  the  name  of  Madelon.  According  to  the 
Italian  version,  she  was  the  daughter  of  one  of 
the  shepherds.  As  she  heard  them  telling  about 
the  new-born  bambino,  she  became  possessed 
with  an  eager  desire  to  see  this  strange  little 
king.  When  the  shepherds  started  on  their 
wonderful  quest  to  the  stable,  she  silently  crept 
along  behind  them,  trying  always  to  keep  out 
of  sight  lest  they  should  turn  her  back.  By 
the  time  she  arrived  in  the  village  street  of 
Bethlehem  she  was  foot-sore  and  weary,  but 
all  her  weariness  was  forgotten  in  the  hope 
which  had  brought  her  to  this  strange  place  on 
this  strange  night. 

When  the  shepherds  entered  the  stable, 
Madelon  stood  at  the  entrance  entranced  with 
the  sight  of  the  little  king,  and  the  pilgrims  who 
did  him  homage.  She  saw  the  rich  gifts  which 
the  Wise  Men  had  brought.  She  saw  also  the 
humbler  gifts  of  the  shepherds,  the  loaf  of 
barley  bread,  the  home-made  cheese  and  the 
ileece  of  lamb's  wool,  white  and  soft,  fit  to 

[21] 


THE    LEGEND    OF    THE    CHRISTMAS    ROSE 

wrap  around  a  baby's  limbs  this  cold  winter 
night. 

As  she  looks  upon  these  gifts,  her  own  heart 
is  stirred  by  childhood's  native  spirit  of  gener- 
osity. What  shall  she  do?  Shall  she  remain 
outside?  How  can  she  enter  when  she  has  no 
gift  to  offer?  She,  too,  must  give  of  her  best. 
The  best  she  ever  had  to  give  was  flowers.  But 
there  are  no  flowers  now,  for  it  is  winter,  nor 
has  she  a  farthing  of  money  with  which  to  buy 
anything  else.  She  looked  down  at  her  little 
empty  sun-browned  hands,  and  a  great  sob  rose 
in  her  throat.  To  have  the  impulse  to  love 
without  the  means  of  expressing  it,  is  real  pain, 
and  Madelon  burst  into  tears. 

Madelon's  tears  were  not  seen  by  any  one 
about  the  new  king,  for  she  was  outside  the 
stable  door,  but  they  were  heeded  by  an  unseen 
helper.  It  is  a  beautiful  Christian  tradition 
that  every  little  child  has  a  guardian  angel. 
Jesus  said  that  a  child's  guardian  angel,  or  mes- 
senger, was  always  heard  first  in  the  court  of 
heaven.  A  request  from  a  little  child  in  trouble, 
according  to  Jesus'  estimate  of  the  child's  im- 
portance, is  considered  before  the  request  from 
a  statesman  who  is  directing  the  destinies  of 
his  country,  or  the  request  of  a  general  on  the 
eve  of  battle,  or  the  request  of  a  philosopher 

[22] 


ROSES    THAT    BLOOM    AT    CHRISTMAS 

who  is  wrestling  with  the  hard  problems  of 
life. 

Richter,  the  German  artist,  has  painted  many 
pictures  to  illustrate  the  beautiful  idea  of 
guardian  angels.  He  painted  the  child  angels 
who  sit  talking  to  mortal  children  among  the 
flowers,  now  holding  them  by  their  coats,  lest 
they  fall  upon  the  stairs,  now  with  apples  en- 
ticing them  back  when  they  draw  too  near 
the  precipice.  He  painted  the  angels  who  ring 
in  the  chambers  of  memory  the  sweet  mother's 
name,  when  the  boy  grows  tall  and  is  tempted. 
He  painted  the  angels  who  come  in  the  garb 
of  a  pilgrim  made  ready  for  guidance  to  the 
heavenly  land  when  life's  pilgrimage  is  done. 

In  the  story  of  the  Christmas  rose,  a  guard- 
ian angel  is  the  connecting  link  between  a 
child's  need  and  the  great  discovery  which 
grew  out  of  it.  In  response  to  Madelon's  tears, 
her  guardian  angel,  Gabriel,  took  her  by  the 
hand  and  touched  the  ground  with  his  stick, 
when  lo,  rich  flowers  sprang  up  on  every  side, 
and  the  little  flower  girl  was  supplied  with  a 
gift  which  best  represented  her  spirit. 

It  is  this  legend  which  Alfred  Hitchens' 
painting  represents.  The  picture  depicts  the 
moment  when  Madelon  is  making  to  the  Christ- 
Child  in  the  stable  her  little  votive  offering,  the 

[23] 


THE    LEGEND    OF    THE    CHRISTMAS    ROSE 

heaven-sent  gift  born  of  her  love,  a  handful  of 
Christmas  roses.  The  roses  Mr.  Kitchens  has 
represented  on  his  canvas  and  placed  in  Made- 
Ion's  hand  can  be  recognized  readily  as  belong- 
ing to  this  variety. 

The  artist  has  introduced  into  his  picture 
baby  angels  who  smile  approval  and  Gabriel 
himself,  who  stands  in  reverent  worship  before 
the  humble  gift  of  homage  from  the  child's 
pure  heart.  Mr.  Hitchens'  power  is  most  ap- 
parent in  his  treatment  of  the  little  peasant 
girl,  for  whom  his  wife  was  the  model.  She 
is  in  fact,  as  well  as  in  position,  the  center  of 
the  picture  and  the  chief  object  of  interest.  So 
awed  is  she  in  the  presence  of  the  Christ-Child, 
that  she  ventures  only  with  a  shy  and  self-con- 
scious delicacy  to  lift  her  eyes  away  from  the 
roses  in  her  hand  to  look  at  the  child.  There 
is  in  her  attitude  such  reverence  touched  with 
timidity  that  the  appeal  she  makes  is  direct  and 
tender. 

A  child's  tears,  a  guardian  angel,  and  winter 
roses  preserved  in  story  and  painting,  these 
constitute  the  beauty  and  pathos  mingled  to- 
gether in  one  of  the  most  significant  of  all 
Christmas  legends,  a  legend  which  comes  down 
to  us  by  way  both  of  Italy  and  England.  In  the 
story  a  child's  tears  touch  the  heart  of  a  guard- 

[24] 


ROSES    THAT    BLOOM    AT    CHRISTMAS 

ian  angel,  as  they  always  do,  and  the  guardian 
angel  touches  winter  roses  into  summer  bloom. 
That  roses  really  do  bloom  in  the  snows  of  mid- 
winter will  be  surprising  news  to  many.  It  is 
one  of  nature's  wonders,  but  it  is  not  the  most 
wonderful  part  of  the  story.  It  is  not  as 
wonderful  as  to  see  roses  of  love  bloom  in  the 
soil  of  human  hearts  that  are  naturally  wintry. 
The  legend  is  true,  not  with  the  truth  of  inci- 
dent, but  with  the  truth  of  character.  Of 
course,  legends  are  not  careful  about  dates  and 
details.  The  Wise  Men,  it  is  true,  did  not  pre- 
sent their  gifts  in  the  stable,  for  Mary  and  her 
little  son  had  moved  into  a  house  before  the 
Wise  Men  had  arrived.  It  is  a  poetic  fact,  not 
an  historic  fact,  which  the  legend  embodies. 
Goethe  said  that  poems  are  painted  window- 
panes.  The  same  is  true  of  legends,  for  legends 
and  folk-lore  have  preserved  for  us  the  basal 
realities  of  human  experience. 

The  legend  of  the  Christmas  rose  is  such  a 
painted  window-pane,  and  what  we  see  through 
this  painted  window  is  indeed  the  great  discov- 
ery of  the  Christian  ages;  the  discovery  that 
Christian  love  is  the  greatest  creative  agency  in 
human  life;  that  idealizing  love  has  the  power 
to  create  the  thing  it  desires;  that  the  love 
which  the  Christ-Child  brought  to  our  world 

[25] 


THE    LEGEND    OF    THE    CHRISTMAS    ROSE 

brings  the  roses  of  spring  into  wintry  and  ice- 
bound human  hearts.  Is  not  this  the  first  and 
fundamental  meaning  of  Christmas  ? 

By  saying  that  a  httle  flower  girl's  desire  for 
them  produced  winter  roses,  the  legend  means 
to  state  the  principle  that  love  is  creative.  Love 
is  creative  because  it  increases  with  use.  When 
Dante  said  of  the  reeds  which  grew  on  the 
purgatorial  shores,  that  whenever  one  was 
plucked  up,  two  grew  in  its  place,  he  was  saying 
that  all  spiritual  goods,  when  shared,  do  not 
decrease,  but  increase. 

"True  love  in  this  differs  from  gold  and  clay, 
That  to  divide  is  not  to  take  away." 

The  Master  of  the  Holy  Grail  announced  the 
same  discovery  to  Sir  Launfal  at  the  end  of  his 
unsuccessful  quest. 

"Who  gives  himself  with  his  alms  feeds  three, 
Himself,  his  hungry  neighbor  and  me." 

By  feeding  another,  he  had  not  less  for  him- 
self, but  more.  Love  gains  by  giving.  The  act 
of  love  creates  the  love  itself.  Love's  very 
desire  to  serve  produces  the  roses  with  which 
to  serve. 

The  principle  embodied  in  this  legend  is  well 
stated  in  a  beautiful  little  poem  called  the  *'Ruby 
Heart,"  by  Edward  Rowland  Sill.    The  poem 

[26] 


ROSES    THAT    BLOOM    AT    CHRISTMAS 

was  written  for  children,  but  it  contains  the  cen- 
tral idea  which  the  Christmas  Babe  came  to 
make  clear  to  men.  The  poem  says  that  a  tiny 
fairy  used  to  dwell  under  a  fragrant  blossom- 
bell.  Everything  about  her  was  beautiful  and 
clad  in  rainbow  hues,  but  the  fairy's  soul  was 
sad  because  there  was  no  creature  that  she 
loved.  She  used  to  sing  to  herself  the  song  of 
Coleridge : 

"He  prayeth  best  who  loveth  best 
All  things  both  great  and  small ; 
For  the  dear  God  who  loveth  us, 
He  made  and  loveth  all." 

But  it  was  of  no  use;  her  heart  remained  un- 
moved. Wandering  one  day  by  the  brook 
alone,  she  picked  up  a  white  pebble  stone,  and 
carved  it  into  the  shape  of  a  little  marble  heart. 
"It  is  no  more  possible  for  me  to  love,"  she 
said,  "than  for  this  white  stone  to  turn  ruby- 
red." 

Wakened  one  night  by  a  moonbeam,  the  fairy 
saw  an  angel  who  said  he  had  come  to  teach  her 
how  to  love.  "The  way  to  love,"  he  said,  "is 
to  do  every  day  some  little  deed  of  kindness, 
feed  some  faint  creature,  and  stop  the  bleeding 
of  some  hurt  spirit,  then  carve  the  record  of 
each  deed  of  love  every  night  on  the  heart  of 

[27] 


THE    LEGEND    OF    THE    CHRISTMAS    ROSE 

marble  white,  and  each  word  shall  blush  into  a 
ruby-red."  "By  some  blessed  moral  law,"  said 
Kingsley,  *'the  surest  way  to  make  oneself  love 
any  human  being,  is  to  go  and  do  him  a  kind- 
ness." This  is  what  the  angel  said  to  the  fairy. 
The  poet  means  to  say  that  the  creative  power 
of  love  is  so  great  that  it  can  turn  hearts  of 
stone  into  hearts  of  flesh. 

Through  the  magic  touch  of  this  new  power, 
the  fairy's  world  became  a  new  world,  just  as 
the  sky,  at  the  close  of  the  twilight  hour,  seems 
to  be  empty  blue,  and  then  suddenly  becomes 
one  sweep  of  stars.  All  the  little  creatures  now 
that  she  had  learned  to  love,  became  to  her 
suddenly  beautiful.  Each  little  ugliness  was 
concealed,  and  each  goodness  more  and  more 
revealed.  This  is  not  to  say  that  the  love 
which  she  had  acquired  so  blinded  her  that 
she  could  not  see  the  ugliness. 

It  is  as  far  from  the  truth  as  it  can  be  to  say 
that  love  is  blind,  for  nothing  is  so  keen-eyed  as 
love.  If  you  want  to  know  a  man's  defects,  ask 
his  wife.  She  will  not  tell  you,  but  she  knows, 
and  knows  better  than  anyone  else.  Love  is 
said  to  be  blind,  only  because  its  habit  is  to  shut 
its  eyes  deliberately  to  defects  and  center  its 
attention  on  the  possibilities  in  order  to  make 
them  grow.     Oh,  yes,  love  knows  the  defects. 

[28] 


ROSES    THAT    BLOOM    AT    CHRISTMAS 

The  vast  courage  of  love  lies  in  the  fact  that  it 
can  endure  this  knowledge  and  still  continue 
to  live.  Thus  does  love  idealize  its  object. 
This  is  what  love  is  for,  and  this  is  why  it  is 
creative.  If  any  man  wishes  to  help  his  fellow 
men,  he  can  do  so  far  more  effectively  by  ex- 
hibiting truth  than  by  exposing  error;  by  un- 
veiling beauty  than  by  a  critical  dissection  of 
deformity. 

The  creative  power  of  this  new  aft"ection  is 
the  great  discovery  which  the  Christmastide 
celebrates.  So  original  was  the  idea,  that  a 
new  word  had  to  be  created  for  it.  No  word 
for  love,  in  the  new  sense,  existed.  The  old 
words  had  only  a  domestic  or  sentimental  sig- 
nificance. They  were  symbols  chiefly  for  a 
physical  sensation.  The  Christ-Child  made  it 
stand  for  a  new  kind  of  passion  in  human  expe- 
rience. It  was  because  no  word  existed  to 
express  the  new  idea,  and  in  order  to  purge  the 
old  one  of  its  ignoble  reputation,  that  Paul, 
writing  his  matchless  poem  on  love,  found  it 
necessary  to  describe  elaborately  the  idea  itself, 
stating  carefully  what  it  was  and  what  it  was 
not.  "Love  bears  long  with  offenders  and  is 
helpful;  love  is  not  envious;  love  does  not  be- 
have unbecomingly;  seeketh  not  her  own 
things;  is  not  irritable;  does  not  store  up  in 

[29] 


THE    LEGEND    OF    THE    CHRISTMAS    ROSE 

memory  injuries  received;  rejoices  not  in  in- 
justice, but  rejoices  with  the  truth;  silently 
endures  all  experiences,  trusts  in  them  all, 
hopes  in  them  all,  is  patient  under  them  all." 

The  transformation  of  this  word  is  a 
romance  in  the  history  of  language.  Love  was 
born  again  a  new  and  different  thing.  The 
world  still  uses  the  term  "love,"  to  express  the 
isolating  passion  of  one  sex  for  the  other. 
Jesus  made  all  love  to  be  one  divine  thing.  He 
made  it  stand  not  only  for  the  love  of  one  sex 
for  the  other,  but  for  the  love  of  home,  of 
friends,  of  ideas,  of  truth,  of  country,  of  man- 
kind, of  God.  He  made  it  to  be  a  great  moral 
principle.  He  made  it  impossible  for  a  selfish 
love  to  exist,  for  he  made  it  to  be  a  contradic- 
tion in  terms.  If  it  is  selfish,  it  is  not  love ;  if  it 
is  love  it  is  not  selfish.  He  made  it  to  be  not 
only  a  feeling,  but  a  principle  under  the 
control  of  the  will.  He  made  it  to  be  the  law 
of  gravitation  in  the  moral  world.  He  made 
love  and  God  to  be  synonymous  terms.  He 
offered  it  as  the  one  remedy  for  all  the  personal 
and  social  problems  of  human  life.  He  made 
love  the  one  prize  of  life  worth  pursuing. 
Bacon  quoted  with  approval  the  saying  that  Tt 
is  impossible  to  love  and  to  be  wise.'  Browning 
answered  that  it  is  imposible  to  love  and  not  be 

[30] 


ROSES    THAT    BLOOM    AT    CHRISTMAS 

wise.  Wherever  this  new  love  reigns  roses 
bloom  the  year  round. 

It  was  an  audacious  plan  which  the  little 
King  born  in  Bethlehem  proposed  later  in  his 
life,  when  he  said  he  would  reconstruct  the 
whole  world  and  create  a  new  social  order 
through  the  creative  power  of  a  new  affection. 
His  idea  of  universal  imperialism  is  unique, 
daring,  and  without  parallel.  This  obscure 
Galilean,  who  had  never  been  outside  his  own 
country,  with  no  army,  no  navy,  no  treasury, 
no  staff,  out  of  favor  with  both  Church  and 
State,  calmly  announces  to  his  amazed  friends, 
that  a  new  social  order,  which  he  called  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven,  shall  one  day  have  uni- 
versal dominion  with  himself  as  king,  and  that 
it  is  to  be  established  through  no  other  agency 
than  that  of  love. 

Hope  for  the  success  of  this  plan  lies  in  the 
fact  that  love  is  creative  and  contagious.  Of  all 
the  little  songs  which  Tennyson  uses  as  inter- 
ludes in  his  "Princess,"  the  "Bugle  Song"  is 
artistically  the  most  attractive  and  morally  the 
most  significant.  There  is  perfect  correspond- 
ence between  the  sound  and  the  sense. 

"The  splendor  falls  on  castle  walls 
And  snowy  summits  old  in  story : 

[31] 


THE    LEGEND    OF    THE    CHRISTMAS    ROSE 

The  long  light  shakes  across  the  lakes, 
And  the  wild  cataract  leaps  in  glory. 
Blow,  bugle,  blow,  set  the  wild  echoes  flying, 
Blow,  bugle ;  answer,  echoes,  dying,  dying,  dying. 

"O  hark,  O  hear !  how  thin  and  clear, 
And  thinner,  clearer,  farther  going! 
O  sweet  and  far  from  cliff  and  scar 
The  horns  of  Elfland  faintly  blowing ! 
Blow,  let  us  hear  the  purple  glens  replying : 
Blow,  bugle;  answer,  echoes,  dying,  dying,  dying. 

"O  love,  they  die  in  yon  rich  sky, 
They  faint  on  hill  or  field  or  river : 
Our  echoes  roll  from  soul  to  soul, 
And  grow  for  ever  and  for  ever. 
Blow,  bugle,  blow,  set  the  wild  echoes  flying. 
And  answer,  echoes,  answer,  dying,  dying,  dying." 

In  contrast  to  the  echoes  of  a  bugle  which 
grow  fainter  and  fainter  until  they  die  out,  the 
echoes  of  love  forever  roll  from  soul  to  soul,  and 
grow  with  increasing  volume.  The  supreme 
test  of  the  work  of  every  great  artist  is  its 
infectious  quality.  The  success  of  all  art  activity 
depends  on  the  fact  that  the  man  who  receives 
another  man's  expression  of  feeling  is  capable 
of  experiencing  the  same  emotion  which  moved 
the  man  who  expressed  it.  Judged  by  this 
standard,  Jesus  is  the  supreme  artist  of  history. 

[32] 


ROSES    THAT    BLOOM    AT    CHRISTMAS 

He  has  infected  more  men  with  a  new  and  great 
emotion  than  anyone  else  has.  The  success 
of  His  work  for  the  world  depends  on  the  fact 
that  this  emotion  has  been  contagious;  that 
echoes  of  the  new  affection  have  echoed  from 
one  infected  soul  to  another  through  all  the 
weary  years  since  the  first  Christmas  morn. 

Every  true  friend  of  the  Babe  of  Bethlehem 
who  has  blown  this  sweetest  of  bugle  songs  into 
the  glens  and  valleys  of  human  life,  has  never 
failed  to  hear  its  re-echoes.  Does  not  history 
show  it  to  be  contagious  ?  Does  not  the  law  of 
love  always  triumph  when  it  is  tried  ?  The  wise 
old  myth  of  "Beauty  and  the  Beast,"  which 
exists  in  so  many  different  forms  because  dear 
to  human  hearts,  is  the  dramatic  statement  of 
the  eternal  truth  that  the  way  to  make  anything 
beautiful  is  to  love  it  in  spite  of  its  ugliness.  It 
was  the  love  of  a  beautiful  woman  that  trans- 
formed the  ugly  Beast  into  a  handsome  young 
prince,  and  the  thing  into  which  she  trans- 
formed him  was  beautiful  because  beauty  is 
love's  sign  and  symbol.  The  English  humorist 
Jerome  K.  Jerome,  in  his  story,  ''The  Passing 
of  the  Third  Floor  Back,"  shows  with  dramatic 
power  how  the  shabby  lives  in  a  shabby  London 
boarding  house  were  created  anew  into  true 
men  and  women  through  the  idealizing  love  of 

[33] 


THE    LEGEND    OF    THE    CHRISTMAS    ROSE 

the  strange  young  man,  who  was  an  angel  in 
disguise.  This  is  the  old  story  in  a  new  dress. 
It  is  not  an  idle  dream,  but  a  dream  daily  ful- 
filled. 

Christian  love  is  the  final  philosophy  of  life. 
Christian  love  at  the  Christmas  season  girdles 
the  world  with  golden  chains.  Christmas 
occupies  its  unique  and  dominant  place  in 
human  thought  because  of  a  deep-seated  con- 
viction that  love  alone  is  able  to  create  the  world 
anew,  and  direct  its  activities  to  noble  ends. 
All  other  agencies,  law  and  punishment  and 
force,  have  been  tried  on  a  large  scale  in  human 
history,  and  found  wanting.  The  sufficient 
argument  against  their  use  is  not  that  it  is 
wrong  to  use  them,  because  the  man  who  thinks 
that  love  has  no  anger  in  it  does  not  know 
what  love  means.  But  the  sufficient  argu- 
ment against  the  use  of  force  is  its  general 
futility. 

Force  is  not  a  remedy  but  an  aggravation. 
The  all-sufficient  argument  in  favor  of  the  use 
of  love,  as  a  transforming  agency,  is  its  effi- 
ciency. Judge  Lindsey  has  demonstrated  the 
truth  of  this  statement  so  completely  as  to  con- 
vince any  man  who  has  any  respect  for  facts. 
His  experience  with  Lee  Martin  and  his  ''River 
Front  Gang"  is  such  a  demonstration,  and  it  is 

[34  J 


ROSES    THAT    BLOOM    AT    CHRISTMAS 

only  one  out  of  many.  Lee  Martin  was  a  boy 
burglar,  a  sneak-thief,  a  pickpocket,  a  jail 
breaker,  and  a  tramp.  His  gang  was  known 
to  the  newspapers  as  the  most  desperate  band 
of  young  criminals  in  Denver.  Lee  Martin  and 
another  member  of  the  gang  were  caught  one 
night  in  a  drug  store  into  which  they  had 
broken.  When  the  Judge  found  them  in  jail, 
they  were  strapped  to  the  benches  of  their  cells 
and  were  badly  bruised  after  their  interview 
with  the  police,  who  punished  them  for  refus- 
ing to  "snitch,"  that  is,  to  tell  on  the  fellow- 
members  of  their  gang.  The  Judge  told  them 
he  wanted  to  help  them.  They  sneered  at  him. 
They  had  been  so  long  at  war  with  society  that 
it  was  only  after  a  month  of  frequent  visits  and 
the  use  of  infinite  tact  and  sympathy,  that  they 
could  be  induced  to  believe  that  anybody  wished 
to  help  them.  They  had  become  such  desperate 
young  criminals  that  it  seemed  almost  too  late 
to  begin  any  work  of  reformation. 

The  police  captain  assured  the  Judge  that  it 
was  too  late.  "You  can't  'baby'  Lee  Martin," 
he  said.  "He's  been  in  jail  thirteen  times  and 
it  hasn't  done  him  any  good."  The  captain 
spoke  better  than  he  knew.  He  was  quite  right 
as  to  the  facts,  but  he  was  wrong  in  his  implied 
assumption  that  nothing  else  could  do  him  any 

[35] 


THE    LEGEND    OF    THE    CHRISTMAS    ROSE 

good,  because  nothing  else  had  ever  been  tried. 

''Well,"  said  the  Judge,  "I'd  like  to  see  what 
we  can  do.  If  we  fail  we'll  still  have  twelve 
times  the  best  of  the  jail.  It  has  cost  this  city, 
in  officers'  fees  alone,  over  a  thousand  dollars 
to  make  a  criminal  of  him.  Let  us  see  how 
much  it  will  cost  to  turn  him  into  an  honest 
boy."  The  officer  reeled  off  a  long  list  of 
Martin's  offences,  and  the  Judge  retorted  with 
a  type-written  record  of  them  twice  as  long. 

"How  in  the  world  did  you  get  'em,  Judge?" 
asked  the  astonished  officer.  ''We  couldn't 
szveat  'em  out  of  him." 

The  case  was  finally  referred  to  the  Judge's 
court.  Martin  was  tried  and  his  guilt  was 
clear.  He  was  sent  back  to  jail  under  sus- 
pended sentence,  while  the  Judge  thought  out 
his  plan  of  procedure.  One  night  he  brought 
Martin  to  his  chambers  under  guard.  After  a 
little  he  sent  the  guard  away.  Then  he  decided 
to  put  the  influence  of  love  to  the  test.  'T  told 
him,"  said  the  Judge,  "of  the  fight  I  was  mak- 
ing for  him,  showed  him  how  I  had  been  spend- 
ing all  my  spare  time  trying  to  straighten 
things  out,  and  warned  him  that  the  police  did 
not  believe  I  could  succeed.  'Now,  Lee,'  I  said, 
'you  can  run  away  if  you  want  to,  and  prove 
me  a  liar  to  the  cops,  but  I  want  to  help  you  and 

[36] 


ROSES    THAT    BLOOM    AT    CHRISTMAS 

I  want  you  to  stand  by  me.  I  want  you  to  trust 
me  and  I  want  you  to  go  back  to  the  jail  there 
and  let  me  do  the  best  I  can.'  " 

He  went,  and  he  went  alone — unguarded. 
Then  he  was  put  on  probation  and  in  a  few 
days  he  brought  to  the  Judge  two  other  mem- 
bers of  the  gang,  "Red"  Mike  and  Tommie 
Green.  The  Judge  told  them  also  how  he 
wanted  to  help  them  to  live  honest  lives,  and  he 
praised  Martin  for  his  moral  strength  in  going 
back  to  the  jail  alone.  Before  they  left  "Red" 
and  Tommie  had  "snitched"  on  themselves  and 
become  probationers.  One  by  one  every  mem- 
ber of  the  gang  came,  until  all  seven  were  on 
the  Judge's  list,  confessed  wrong  doers,  pledged 
to  give  up  crime  and  make  an  honest  effort  to 
be  "straight."  To-day,  six  out  of  the  seven  are 
honest  young  workmen.  The  use  of  force  tried 
thirteen  times  and  failed.  The  creative  power 
of  love  tried  once,  and  triumphed!  Judge 
Lindsey  demonstrated  the  truth  of  the  maxim 
uttered  by  a  prisoner-philosopher  of  the  Fed- 
eral prison  at  Atlanta,  Ga.,  that  "if  you  cannot 
reform  a  man  by  treating  him  like  a  man  it  is 
pretty  certain  you  cannot  reform  him  by  treat- 
ing him  like  a  dog." 

The  strength  of  love  as  a  working  method  is 
its  efficiency.     There  is  one  power,  and  one 

[Z7] 


THE    LEGEND    OF    THE    CHRISTMAS    ROSE 

alone,  strong  enough  to  heal  the  hurt  of  the 
world.  It  is  the  creative  power  of  a  new  affec- 
tion. The  man  who  acquires  love  as  a  habit, 
and  as  a  settled  attitude  to  life,  is  the  most 
efficient  man.  We  do  not  fight  fire  with  fire. 
We  fight  fire  with  water.  We  cannot  heal  the 
world's  hurt  by  using  the  agencies  that  pro- 
duced the  hurt.  We  may  raise  an  ice-bound 
window-sash  by  the  use  of  a  hatchet  and  a 
strong  arm,  but  we  do  damage  to  the  wood 
in  the  process.  The  use  of  a  little  hot  water 
is  much  less  dramatic,  but  much  more  efficient. 
In  the  land-tax  contest  Lloyd-George  goes 
up  and  down  England  uttering  one  sentence, 
''Shall  ten  thousand  people  own  all  the  soil  of 
England  and  all  others  be  trespassers  in  the 
land  of  their  birth?"  And  this  one  sentence 
does  more  to  destroy  the  citadels  of  selfishness 
and  prejudice  than  all  the  battering  rams  ever 
used  against  England's  ancient  walled  towns. 
There  is  no  power  as  strong  as  an  idea,  and 
there  is  no  idea  as  strong  as  love. 

All  other  forces  in  human  life  are  destruc- 
tive, disintegrating  and  divisive.  Love  alone 
is  creative,  constructive  and  cooperative.  In 
Dante's  beatific  vision  he  said  the  Eternal  Light 
illuminated  many  things  for  him,  and  the  chief 
thing  among  them  all  was  this: 

[38] 


ROSES    THAT    BLOOM    AT    CHRISTMAS 

"I  saw  that  in  its  depth  far  down  is  lying 
Bound  up  with  love  together  in  one  volume, 
What  through  the  world  in  leaves  is  scattered." 

The  isolating  activities  of  men  are  like  leaves 
scattered  through  the  world  by  the  wind. 
What  gathers  them  together  into  one  volume  is 
love.  Love  gives  them  worth,  meaning,  coher- 
ance,  efficiency.  The  first  and  chief  and  oft- 
repeated  Christmas  greeting  of  the  Babe  of 
Bethlehem  to  our  world,  therefore,  may  be 
summed  up  in  these  words: 

"There  is  no  good  of  life  but  love — but  love ! 
What  else  looks  good,  is  some  shade  flung  from  love ; 
Love  gilds  it,  gives  it  worth.     Be  warned  by  me. 
Never  you  cheat  yourself  one  instant!    Love. 
Give  love,  ask  only  love,  and  leave  the  rest !" 

A  child's  tears,  a  guardian  angel,  and  winter 
roses;  the  tears  standing  for  the  sorrow  and 
injustice  and  loneliness  of  life;  the  guardian 
angel  representing  the  creative  power  of  the 
new  afifection  born  on  the  first  Christmas;  the 
roses  symbolizing  a  transformed  and  beautified 
and  compassionate  world,  this  is  the  meaning 
of  the  Legend  of  the  Christmas  Rose. 


[39] 


II 


THE  VIRGIN'S  DREAM 

From  a  Painting  by  Alfred  Bramtot 

This  picture  was  first  exhibited  at  the  Salon,  Paris, 
in  i8po,  and  zvas  immediately  purchased  by  the  Musce 
dc  Millhouse  {Alsace^  where  it  now  is.  The  repro- 
duction is  from  a  photograph  by  Braun  Clement  & 
Co.,  Paris  and  New  York,  and  is  reproduced  by  their 
kind  permission. 


[41] 


"At  last  Thou  art  come,  little  Saviour ! 

And  Thine  angels  fill  midnight  with  song; 
Thou  art  come  to  us,  gentle  Creator  ! 

Whom  Thy  creatures  have  sighed  for  so  long. 

"Thou  art  come  to  the  beautiful  Mother; 
She  hath  looked  on  Thy  marvelous  face; 
Thou  art  come  to  us.  Maker  of  Mary ! 
And  she  was  Thy  channel  of  grace. 

"We  have  waited  so  long  for  Thee,  Saviour ! 

Art  Thou  come  to  us,  dearest,  at  last  ? 

Oh,  bless  Thee,  dear  Joy  of  Thy  Mother! 

This  is  worth  all  the  wearisome  past ! 

"Thou  art  come,  Thou  art  come,  Child  of  Mary ! 
Yet  we  hardly  believe  Thou  art  come ; 
It  seems  such  a  wonder  to  have  Thee, 
New  Brother!    with  us  in  our  home!" 

— Frederic  W.  Faber. 


[42] 


i 


THE  VIRGIN'S  DREAM 
By  Alfred  Bramtot 


INTERPRETATION— THE  ANTICIPA- 
TION OF  CHRISTMAS 


[45] 


"I  can  only  admire  what  is  already  in  my  soul.  If 
I  shed  tears  over  a  picture  of  love,  it  is  because  it 
appeals  to  an  old  experience.  Love  cannot  be  painted ; 
only  its  manifestations  can  be  painted.  If  the  feeling 
is  not  previously  within,  the  manifestation  will  not  put 
it  there.  The  portrait  of  Jesus  is  no  exception.  There 
are  some  in  the  gallery  who  have  appreciated  it  from 
the  very  outset.  They  could  only  do  so  on  the  prin- 
ciple that  Christmas  light  is  older  than  Christmas  Day. 
Had  the  portrait  of  Jesus  been  foreign  to  the  world, 
the  world  would  never  have  accepted  it." 

— George  Mathcson. 


[46] 


THE  ANTICIPATION   OF   CHRISTMAS 

WHATEVER  else  they  may  or  may 
not  be,  the  stories  that  cluster 
around  the  birth  of  Jesus  are 
matchless,  idyllic  poetry;  stories 
that  have  been  retold  in  music,  and  drama  and 
painting,  as  no  other  stories  have  ever  been; 
stories  that  appeal  to  men,  with  a  perennial 
freshness,  as  if  they  were  a  new  creation  each 
year,  like  the  flowers  of  every  spring  time; 
stories  that  have  in  them  a  charm  like  the 
simple  charm  of  the  sunshine;  a  charm,  there- 
fore, which  is  equally  felt  by  both  the  child  and 
the  man. 

The  songs  and  stories  that  gather  about  the 
birth-record  of  Jesus  have  in  them  the  same 
primitive  elements  that  are  embodied  in  the 
folk-stories  which  lie  so  close  to  the  heart  of 
mankind,  not  only  in  its  childhood,  but  in  its 
maturity  as  well.  They  embody  needs  so  uni- 
versally felt,  that  these  needs  have  found 
expression  in  secular  as  well  as  in  sacred  liter- 
ature.    The   song,    for    example,    which   the 

[47] 


THE    LEGEND    OF    THE    CHRISTMAS    ROSE 

mother  of  Jesus  sang  before  his  birth,  and  the 
children's  fairy  story,  "Cinderella,"  are  both 
tuned  to  the  same  key  and  express  the  same 
hope.  They  both  alike  anticipate  the  day  when 
the  proud  shall  be  put  down  and  the  lowly  shall 
be  exalted,  and  all  unjust  sufferers  shall  come 
to  their  own.  Mary's  Magnificat  contains  a 
revolutionary  doctrine  and  expresses  the  hope 
for  a  reversal  of  human  values,  and  for  the 
revival  of  a  new  standard  of  greatness. 
The  burden  of  Mary's  song  still  remains  a 
supreme  need  both  of  individuals  and  of 
nations.  King  Robert  of  Sicily  recognized  the 
revolutionary  ring  in  Mary's  song  and  thought 
it  was  well  that  the  Magnificat  should  be  sung 
only  in  Latin  so  that  its  real  meaning  might  be 
concealed. 

The  secret  of  the  persistent  popularity  of 
these  stories  does  not  lie,  however,  in  their 
loveliness  alone.  Their  secret  does  not  lie  even 
in  the  hope  they  express  for  a  reversal  of  values 
and  for  the  day  to  come  when  that  which  men 
call  great  shall  be  called  little,  much  as  this 
result  would  mean  for  social  welfare  and  moral 
sanity.  The  secret  lies  rather  in  the  universal 
truth  which  they  embody ;  it  lies  in  the  longing 
of  men  for  the  divine  to  come  in  concrete  form 
to  the  human.    This  is  the  golden  thread  that 

[48] 


THE     ANTICIPATION     OF     CHRISTMAS 

runs  through  them  all  and  gives  to  them  a 
meaning.  Men  like  Simeon  and  women  like 
Anna  waiting  in  Jerusalem  ''for  the  dayspring 
from  on  high,"  represented  the  desire  of  many 
thousand  of  their  fellow  countrymen.  The 
annunciation  to  Mary  was  the  word  that  many 
a  Jewish  maiden  had  hoped  to  hear.  The  angel 
music  in  the  starry  sky  answered  the  heart 
music  of  the  honest  shepherds. 

This  anticipation  of  the  Christ-Child  was  not 
confined  within  the  nation  to  which  He  be- 
longed. Granted  that  the  finding  of  the 
researches  of  the  astronomer,  Kepler,  is  true, 
and  that  in  the  year  of  Christ's  birth  a  bright 
star  appeared  between  Jupiter  and  Saturn,  why 
was  it  that  the  Magi  connected  this  star  with 
the  birth  of  a  child  ?  They  could  have  done  so 
only  on  the  ground  that  there  prevailed  in  the 
East  a  widespread  hope  and  desire  for  a  divine 
manifestation. 

The  necessary  assumption,  therefore,  back  of 
the  story  of  the  Wise  Men  is  a  fact  of  history. 
Confucius  in  China  prophesied  the  coming  of  a 
Messiah,  and  it  is  a  most  noteworthy  fact  that 
a  company  of  his  followers  went  forth  in  search 
of  such  a  Messiah  and  as  a  result  of  this  search 
Buddhism  was  introduced  into  China.  Zo- 
roaster in  Persia  foretold    the    coming   of    a 

[49] 


THE    LEGEND    OF    THE    CHRISTMAS    ROSE 

prophet,  born  of  a  virgin,  who  should  found  a 
new  kingdom.  Certain  passages  in  Virgil  are 
so  remarkable  that  they  have  been  considered 
to  be  Messianic  prophecies.  The  cry  of  the 
human  for  the  divine  is  a  cry  common  to  all 
religions. 

Lydia  Maria  Child  has  written  a  little  book 
called  "The  Aspirations  of  Humanity,"  in 
which  she  seeks  to  show  that  the  religious 
aspirations  of  men  are  everywhere  and  always 
the  same.  To  whatever  extent  this  may  be 
true,  it  is  apparent  that  the  annunciation  to 
Mary  foretold  an  event  which  was  anticipated 
and  universally  desired.  It  is  for  this  reason 
that  it  has  been  so  frequently  painted.  Painters 
have  treated  the  Annunciation  in  two  ways,  it 
is  treated  as  an  event  and  also  as  a  mystery. 
As  an  event,  painters  represent  the  simple  fact 
of  a  beautiful  child  coming  into  human  life  to 
change  and  to  bless  it.  As  a  mystery,  they 
represent  the  abstract  truth  of  the  incarnation 
of  the  divine.  Bramtot's  picture  happily  com- 
bines both  ideas.  It  embodies  the  sublime  truth 
that  the  divine  came  into  human  life  and  came 
as  a  human  child.  This  fact  constitutes  the 
heart  of  Christmas. 

It  adds  sweet  reasonableness  to  the  Christ- 
mas story  to  remember  that  it  was  not  unex- 

[50] 


THE     ANTICIPATION      OF     CHRISTMAS 

pected,  but  stands  related  to  the  revelation 
made  long  before  to  the  heart  of  man.  A  story 
to  be  true  does  not  need  to  be  unique.  Certain 
it  is  that,  if  there  had  been  no  felt  need  and 
longing  for  the  divine,  "the  Son  of  the  High- 
est" would  never  have  been  recognized  when 
He  came.  Men  see  only  what  they  are  pre- 
pared to  see.  "I  have  not  found  in  my  expe- 
rience," said  George  William  Curtis,  "that 
travelers  always  bring  back  with  them  the  sun- 
shine of  Italy  or  the  elegance  of  Greece,  so  that 
I  begin  to  suspect  a  man  must  have  Italy  and 
Greece  in  his  heart,  if  he  would  ever  see  them 
with  his  eyes." 

The  Babe  of  Bethlehem  was  recognized  as 
the  "Son  of  the  Highest,"  in  the  only  way  He 
could  have  been  or  ever  can  be  recognized.  He 
was  recognized  as  such  because  certain  men 
were  prepared  by  their  anticipation  of  Him  to 
see  Him  when  He  came.  It  is  like  this.  In  the 
realm  of  spiritual  vision  the  same  principle 
operates  which  Walter  Rauschenbusch  illus- 
trates from  the  experience  of  the  botanist  and 
the  childless  man.  A  man  was  walking 
through  the  woods  in  springtime.  The  air  was 
thrilling  and  throbbing  with  the  passion  of 
little  hearts,  with  the  love-wooing,  the  parent 
pride,  and  the  deadly  fear  of  the  birds.    But  the 

[51] 


THE    LEGEND    OF    THE    CHRISTMAS    ROSE 

man  never  noticed  that  there  was  a  bird  in  the 
woods.  He  was  a  botanist  and  was  looking  for 
plants.  A  man  was  walking  through  the  streets 
of  a  city,  pondering  the  problems  of  wealth  and 
national  well-being.  He  saw  a  child  sitting  on 
the  curbstone  and  crying.  He  met  children  at 
play.  He  saw  a  young  mother  with  her  child 
and  an  old  man  with  his  grandchild.  But  it 
never  occurred  to  him  that  little  children  are 
the  foundation  of  society,  a  chief  motive  power 
in  economic  effort,  the  most  influential  teachers, 
the  source  of  the  purest  pleasures,  the  embodi- 
ment of  form  and  color  and  grace.  The  man 
had  never  had  a  child  and  his  eyes  were  not 
opened.  We  see  only  what  we  are  prepared  by 
anticipation  to  see.  If  we  would  ever  see  Italy 
and  Greece  with  our  eyes,  we  must  first  have 
them  in  our  hearts. 

Of  course  the  bird's  instinct  for  it  does  not 
prove  the  existence  of  the  warm  Southland,  but 
may  it  not  be  that  the  existence  of  the  South- 
land accounts  for  the  instinct  in  the  bird?  May 
it  not  be  that  God  brooded  the  desire  for  Him- 
self in  man's  heart,  because  He  wanted  to  sat- 
isfy it?  Consciously  or  unconsciously  the  de- 
sire for  the  divine  has  been  mankind's  lode-star, 
as  Browning  said  it  was  for  himself. 

[52] 


THE     ANTICIPATION     OF     CHRISTMAS 

*'I  have  always  had  one  lode-star ;  now 
As  I  look  back,  I  see  that  I  have  halted 
Or  hastened  as  I  looked  toward  that  star — 
A  need,  a  trust,  a  yearning  after  God." 

This  desire  for  the  divine  was  as  deep  as 
the  need  for  it  was  sadly  felt.  Long  had  the 
Athenians  worshiped  at  the  altar  of  the  Un- 
known God.  Times  without  number  the  in- 
scription had  been  read  in  an  Egyptian  temple 
— *T  am  she  that  was  and  is  and  shall  be,  and 
no  one  has  ever  drawn  aside  my  veil."  How 
profound  and  practical  was  the  need  is  seen  in 
the  fact  that  temples  were  desecrated  by  certain 
vices  which  had  been  already  banished  from 
society.  Plato  forbade  intemperance  except  in 
the  feast  of  Bacchus.  Aristotle  permitted  lewd 
images  only  of  the  gods.  "It  is  difficult,"  said 
Pliny,  "to  say  whether  it  might  not  be  better 
for  men  to  have  no  religion  at  all  than  to  have 
such  a  religion  as  ours." 

Plato,  in  the  Phaedo,  makes  Simias  express 
the  desire  which  grew  out  of  this  need:  "I 
think  with  Socrates,"  he  says,  "and  I  dare  say 
you  think  so,  too^  that  we  must  lay  hold  of  the 
best  human  opinion,  in  order  that,  borne  by  it 
as  on  a  raft,  we  may  sail  over  the  dangerous  sea 
of  life;  unless  we  can  find  a  stronger  boat  or 

[53] 


THE    LEGEND    OF    TliE    CHRISTMAS    ROSE 

some  sure  word  of  God  which  will  more  surely 
and  safely  carry  us."  What  the  Christmas 
festival  celebrates  is  the  belief  that  the  Babe  of 
Bethlehem  is  the  "sure  word,"  which  Socrates 
and  the  whole  world  so  deeply  needed  and  de- 
sired. 

The  religion  of  the  Christ-Child  does  not 
differ  from  other  religions  because  it  claims  to 
have  created  the  desire  for  the  divine,  but  be- 
cause it  satisfies  it.  Tertullian  beautifully  says 
that  the  human  soul  is  naturally  Christian.  He 
means  that  the  answer  which  the  soul's  need 
had  anticipated  was  exactly  the  answer  which 
the  Christ-Child  furnished.  The  salutation  and 
Christmas  greeting  which  the  Christ-Child, 
through  the  angel  choir,  brought  to  the  world 
was  the  salutation  used  for  ages  by  the  men 
who  had  most  anticipated  His  coming.  This 
salutation  was,  "Shalom,"  "peace." 

The  common  salutation  of  every  nation  is 
characteristic  of  its  own  habit  of  thought. 
When  two  Germans  meet  they  say,  "How  do 
you  find  yourself  ?"  It  is  introspective.  When 
two  Frenchmen  meet,  they  say,  "How  do  you 
have  yourself?"  How  do  you  appear  to  the 
world?  It  is  artistic.  When  two  Americans 
meet  they  say,  "How  do  you  do?"  It  is  prac- 
tical and  strenuous.    It  grows  out  of  a  life  of 

[54] 


THE     ANTICIPATION     OF     CHRISTMAS 

busy  activity,  and  the  asker  of  the  question  is 
so  busy  that  he  does  not  wait  for  an  answer. 
When  two  Greeks  meet,  they  say,  "Chaire" — 
"rejoice."  It  embodies  the  Greek  enjoyment  of 
Hfe  and  his  desire  for  pleasure.  But  the  best 
of  all  salutations  is  that  used  by  the  Hebrews — 
''Shalom."  Their  whole  past  history  is  re- 
flected in  the  word.  Surrounded  as  they  were 
by  warring  tribes  of  nomads,  and  subject  as 
they  were  to  raids  upon  their  homes  and  prop- 
erty, they  expressed  the  daily  desire  of  their 
hearts  when  they  greeted  each  other  with  the 
salutation — "Peace."  This  is  the  Christ- 
Child's  salutation  to  mankind. 

The  Christmas  festival  is  the  celebration  of 
the  fact  that  the  Christ-Child  brought  peace  to 
men  because  He  is  the  answer  to  the  heart's 
deepest  desire.  "The  day  spring  from  on  high 
shall  visit  us  to  guide  our  feet  into  the  way  of 
peace."  It  is  a  happy  circumstance  that  Christ- 
mas is  celebrated  when  the  year  is  reborn; 
when  the  shortest  day  and  the  longest  night 
have  passed.  Just  as  the  lengthened  day  sym- 
bols the  coming  of  spring,  so  Christmas  is  the 
birthday  of  hope  for  the  world. 

At  one  point  m  the  story  Luke  reports  that 
the  disciples  "disbelieved  for  joy."  To  them 
the  glad  tidings  seemed  too  good  to  be  true. 

[551 


THE    LEGEND    OF    THE    CHRISTMAS    ROSE 

The  Christmas  story  seems  too  good  to  be  true 
and  too  important  to  be  easily  accepted.  The 
story's  subhme  announcement  that  Nature's 
God  entered  into  a  simple  peasant  life  and  be- 
came one  of  us,  ''pitched  His  tent  with  us,"  as 
John  expresses  it,  in  order  to  tell  us  who  and 
what  He  was,  produces  one  of  two  very  oppo- 
site effects.  It  must  either  stagger  men  into 
unbelief  or  surprise  them  into  a  new  strange 
life.  If  it  produces  neither  result,  the  story 
has  been  read  to  little  purpose.  If  the  Christ- 
mas story  is  iiot  true,  what  a  pathetic  disap- 
pointment it  has  been !  It  doubtless  still  could 
be  sung  as  a  thing  of  beauty,  but  it  would 
always  have  to  be  sung  in  the  minor  key  as  a 
beautiful  but  idle  dream. 

As  the  Jew  of  old,  surrounded  by  daily  dan- 
gers, cried  out  for  "peace,"  so  man  seems  like 
a  ship-wrecked  sailor  cast  upon  an  inhospitable 
shore,  surrounded  by  dangers  without  and 
dangers  within,  only  able  to  survive  a  few  brief 
troubled  years,  condemned  to  live  the  lonely  life 
of  a  solitary,  coming  from  he  knows  not  where, 
going  he  knows  not  whither.  How  could  he 
help  crying  out  for  some  "sure  word"  on  which 
he  could  embark  as  on  a  raft,  some  word  that 
would  put  into  his  hands  a  key  to  life's  true 
meaning,  and  into  his  heart  a  knowledge  of 

[56] 


THE     ANTICIPATION     OF     CHRISTMAS 

life's  real  goal?  Has  not  this  always 
been  the  cry  of  his  heart?  But  if  there  is  no 
such  "sure  word"  or  meaning  or  goal — if  the 
Christmas  story  is  not  true — then  it  is  too  sad 
to  talk  about.  Better  to  ask  no  question  than 
to  ask  and  receive  no  answer.  Oh,  that  the 
Christmas  story  might  be  true!  And  the 
human  heart  believes  it  is.  Man's  need  requires 
it  to  be  true.  It  is  not  too  good  to  be  true,  it 
is  true  because  it  is  too  good  not  to  be  true. 
For  these  many  centuries  man's  poor  lonely 
heart  has  been  rejoicing  not  over  a  fiction  but 
over  a  fact. 

Believing  as  he  does  that  the  Christmas  story 
is  true,  what  wonder  that  the  angels  sang  their 
overture  in  the  clear  Syrian  sky  at  the  Christ- 
Child's  birth!  What  wonder  that  the  group 
around  His  cradle  thought  that  "the  dawn  of 
a  new  day  stood  tip-toe  on  the  mountain  top" ! 
What  wonder  that  His  birthday  has  become  the 
second  birthday  of  mankind!  What  wonder 
that,  at  Christmas,  in  the  hearts  of  millions  of 
men,  two  worlds  meet  and  kiss!  What  won- 
der that  men  rejoice  to  feel  that  they  have 
arrived  at  their  inn  and  need  travel,  footsore 
and  weary,  no  further !  This  is  the  heart  of  the 
Christmas  story.  The  origin  and  meaning  of 
Christmas  is  the  belief  and  hope  that  the  an- 

[57] 


THE    LEGEND    OF    THE    CHRISTMAS    ROSE 


ticipation  of  it  has  been  realized  and  the  desire 
for  it  gratified.  To  the  wistful  hearts  of  men 
and  women  the  fulness  of  the  Christmas  spirit 
comes  only  when  they  discover  for  themselves 
that  the  realization  has  replaced  the  anticipa- 
tion of  it. 


[58] 


Ill 


THE  ARRIVAL  OF  THE  SHEPHERDS 

From  a  Painting  by  Henri  Lerolle 

The  original  of  this  picture  is  in  the  Museum  of 
Carcassonne,  France. 


[59] 


"We  sate  among  the  stalls  at  Bethlehem; 
The  dumb  kine,  from  their  fodder  turning  them, 

Softened  their  horned  faces 

To  almost  human  gazes 

Toward  the   newly   Born: 
The  simple  shepherds  from  the  star-lit  brooks 

Brought  visionary  looks. 

"God  knows  that  I  am  feeble  like  the  rest! 
I  often  wandered  forth  more  child  than  maiden, 
Among  the  midnight  hills  of  Galilee 

Whose  summits  looked  heaven-laden, 
Listening  to  silence  as  it  seemed  to  be 
God's  voice,  so  soft  yet  strong. 

'Then  I  knelt  down  most  silent  like  the  night, 
Too  self-renounced  for  fears, 
Raising  my  small  face  to  the  boundless  blue 
Whose  stars  did  mix  and  tremble  in  my  tears ; 
God  heard  them  falHng  after,  with  his  dew." 

— Mrs.  Browning. 


[60] 


THE  ARRIVAL  OF  THE  SHEPHERDS 
By  Henri  Lerolle 


INTERPRETATION— THE  LONELI- 
NESS OF  CHRISTMAS 


[63] 


"O  CHRISTMAS!    Merry  Christmas! 

Is  it  really  come  again, 
With  its  memories  and  greetings, 

With   its   joy   and   with   its   pain? 
There's  a  minor  in  the  carol, 

And  a  shadow   in  the   light, 
And  a  spray  of  cypress  twining 

With  the  holly  wreath  tonight. 
And  the  hush  is  never  broken 

By  laughter,  light  and  low, 
As  we  listen  in  the  starlight 

To  the  'bells  across  the  snow/ 

"O  Christmas,  merry   Christmas! 

'Tis  not  so  very  long 
Since  other  voices  blended 

With  the  carol  and  the  song! 
If  we  could  but  hear  them  singing 

As  they  are  singing  now. 
If  we  could  but  see  the  radiance 

Of  the  crown  on  each  dear  brow, 
There  would  be  no  sigh  to  smother, 

No  hidden  tear  to  flow. 
As  we  listen  in  the  starlight 

To  the  'bells  across  the  snow.'  " 

— Frances  Ridley  Haver  gal. 


[64] 


THE  LONELINESS  OF  CHRISTMAS 

NINE  o'clock  on  Christmas  eve!  Nine 
o'clock  on  Christmas  night!  How 
different  the  feelings  for  which  these 
hours  stand!  Christmas  eve  marks 
the  hour  of  high  hope  and  anticipation.  Christ- 
mas night  marks  the  hour  of  a  strange  un- 
namable  longing  and  loneliness.  It  is  not  be- 
cause Christmas  day  failed  to  bring  its  charm 
of  peace  and  its  enchantment  of  good-will.  It 
is  not  because  our  friends  did  not  inspire  our 
hearts  with  humble  gratitude  by  their  tokens 
of  love.  They  did.  But  with  all  the  joy  of 
its  spirit  and  with  all  its  gifts  of  tenderness, 
there  still  remains  a  void  which  Christmas  day 
has  not  filled.  Of  all  the  nights  of  the  year, 
is  it  not  on  Christmas  night  that  men  are  most 
conscious  of  that  void? 

The  Christmastide  has  its  pathetic  side.  It 
is  the  best  of  times  to  many,  but  the  worst  of 
times  to  some.  It  is  the  most  trying  of  all 
seasons  to  lonely  folks.  It  makes  vivid  the 
memory  of  joys  which  are  theirs  no  more.  The 
empty  chair  by    the    fireside    it    makes  more 

[65] 


THE    LEGEND    OF    THE    CHRISTMAS    ROSE 

noticeable.  Its  very  abundance  of  joy  makes 
the  sorrows  of  the  lonely  more  keenly  felt.  It 
makes  real  the  truth  of  Tennyson's  statement, 
"a  sorrow's  crown  of  sorrows  is  remembering 
happier  things." 

The  first  Christmas  itself  was  typical  of  all 
the  Christmases  that  have  succeeded  it,  be- 
cause it  was  not  unaccompanied  by  a  deep 
sense  of  loneliness.  As  the  two  fugitives  from 
Nazareth  drew  near  to  Bethlehem  on  the  first 
Christmas  night,  they  were  too  anxious  and 
confused  to  recall  the  many  events  in  Bethle- 
hem's history  which  had  made  the  little  village 
already  memorable.  They  probably  did  not 
remember  that  here  David  was  born;  here  he 
watched  his  father's  flocks;  here  he  was 
crowned  king;  here  his  three  officers  broke 
through  the  Philistine  host  to  bring  their  king 
a  cup  of  water  from  the  well  of  his  childhood. 

There  were,  however,  two  events  which  must 
have  forced  themselves  on  the  strangers'  at- 
tention, because  they  harmonized  so  well  with 
the  dominant  feelings  in  Mary's  heart.  On  the 
way  to  the  town,  Mary  passed  the  tomb  where 
Jacob  buried  his  much-loved  Rachel.  And,  as 
Mary,  whose  hour  had  come,  looked  on  this 
pathetic  memorial  of  a  man's  love  and  a  wom- 
an's travail  and  untimely  death,  a  natural  pre- 

[66]- 


THE    LONELINESS    OF    CHRISTMAS 

sentiment  must  have  filled  her  heart  with  fear 
and  apprehension.  But  in  Mary's  heart  there 
was  faith  as  well  as  fear,  for  it  is  the  chief 
note  in  her  character.  The  fact  about  Mary 
on  which  the  historian  mostly  dwells  is  her 
faith,  a  faith  more  sorely  tried  than  that  of  any 
other  woman.  On  the  first  Christmas  night 
her  faith  must  have  fed  on  the  memory  of 
Ruth,  the  Moabitess,  who  in  the  valleys  near 
by  had  "gleaned  for  grain  and  harvested  a  hus- 
band"; of  Ruth,  Mary's  own  distant  kins- 
woman, who  was  driven  into  Bethlehem  by 
calamity  and  misfortune  "to  find  herself  the 
unexpected  mother  of  a  race  of  kings."  This 
same  hope  also  nestled  in  Mary's  heart. 

Mary's  hope,  however,  was  destined  soon  to 
be  rudely  shocked.  At  the  end  of  a  journey 
that  had  been  full  of  sadness  and  alarm,  she 
stood  among  strangers,  lonely  and  confused. 
No  one  offered  a  refuge  to  the  weary,  suffer- 
ing woman.  It  was  not  because  "the  fine  tra- 
ditional hospitality  of  the  Jew  had  failed,  but 
because  every  house  was  thronged  by  exiles 
like  herself."  Silent  and  thoughtful,  Mary 
went  to  a  round  cave  hewn  in  the  limestone 
rock  and  used  as  a  stable.  In  such  a  place  as 
this  was  born  her  child,  the  Child  who  came 
to  bring  glad  tidings  to  the  lonely.    She  took 


THE    LEGEND    OF    THE    CHRISTMAS    ROSE 

a  manger  for  her  child's  crib  in  Heu  of  a  cradle. 
It  has  been  said  that  no  woman  comes  to  her- 
self until  she  loves,  and  no  woman  knows  how 
to  love  until  her  first-born  is  in  her  arms.  This 
supreme  joy  of  womanhood  Mary  experienced 
in  the  meanest  and  loneliest  of  surroundings. 
Lerolle's  picture,  ''The  Arrival  of  the  Shep- 
herds/' is  an  accurate  representation  of  the 
cave  at  Bethlehem. 

Mrs.  Browning,  in  her  poem,  "The  Virgin 
Mary  to  the  Child  Jesus,"  has  given  vivid  ex- 
pression to  the  thoughts  which  must  have  filled 
•  Mary's  heart  on  the  night  when  shepherds  saw 
strange  and  beautiful  things  in  the  Syrian  sky, 
but  of  which  Mary  herself  saw  nothing.  The 
cave  in  which  Jesus  was  born  has  since  been, 
surrounded  with  a  halo  of  glory  and  romance, 
and  on  its  site  stands  the  beautiful  Basilica,  the 
oldest  monument  to  Christ  existing  in  the 
world,  built  by  Saint  Helena.  But  on  the  first 
Christmas  night  it  was  a  scene  of  pain,  poverty 
and  loneliness. 

During  that  night  Mary  must  often  have 
asked  herself  the  question,  "Is  it  thus  that 
kings  are  born?"  Between  the  sweet  dream 
that  stirred  her  heart  with  rapture  a  few  months 
before  and  this  grim  reality  in  Bethlehem's 
cave,  what  a  contrast!     No  one  can  look  at 

[68] 


THE    LONELINESS    OF    CLIRISTMAS 

Lerolle's  picture  without  feeling  what  must 
have  been  in  Mary's  mind.  The  picture  is 
valuable  chiefly  because  it  is  suggestive  of  this 
contrast.  The  contrast  which  gave  to  Mary 
many  heart-ponderings  the  night  her  Child  was 
born,  was  destined  to  grow  more  and  more 
marked  in  her  Son's  later  life.  Her  Child's 
coming  was  announced  with  song  and  expec- 
tant joy.  His  life  went  out  in  silence  and  ap- 
parent defeat.  It  was  ushered  in  by  the  radi- 
ant light  of  a  guiding  star;  it  went  out  in  a 
darkness  which  the  historian  thought  covered 
the  whole  earth.  Before  His  birth,  Mary  sang 
her  Magnificat  of  quiet  joy;  at  His  death  an 
arrow  pierced  through  her  heart.  At  His  crib 
Wise  Men  gathered  to  worship  and  shepherds 
came  to  praise;  at  His  death  His  friends  for- 
sook Him  and  fled.  His  life  began  in  the  com- 
pany of  kings;  it  ended  in  the  company  of 
criminals.  It  is  the  contrast  between  the  ex- 
pectation and  the  apparent  lack  of  fulfilment 
which  caused  Mary's  loneliness  in  Bethlehem 
and  throughout  her  life. 

Is  not  the  cause  of  Mary's  loneliness  the 
cause  of  loneliness  everywhere?  Does  not  the 
real  pathos  and  loneliness  of  life  lie  in  the  con- 
trast between  the  illimitable  thirst  and  the  un- 
satisfied draught,  between  the  flying  ideal  and 

[69  J 


THE    LEGEND    OF    THE    CHRISTMAS    ROSE 

the  lagging  real?  Loneliness  is  especially  felt 
at  Christmas  because  Christmas  makes  more 
apparent  this  contrast.  There  comes  at  the 
close  of  Christmas  Day  to  almost  every  man  a 
nameless  feeling  of  regret.  It  is  because 
Christmastide  affects  one  as  music  does.  It 
awakens  memories  of  his  childhood,  of  the  old 
home,  of  dear  companions  now  lost  awhile,  of 
early  hopes  and  ambitions  not  yet  realized;  it 
makes  him  aware  of  desires  and  longings  for  a 
world,  not  as  it  now  is,  but  as  he  would  like  it 
to  be. 

If  this  is  the  cause  of  the  Christmas  mood 
of  loneliness,  then  the  comfort  for  it  does  not 
lie  far  away.  The  comfort  is  the  discovery 
which  the  loneliness  itself  compels  one  to  make ; 
the  discovery  that  one's  heart  is  too  large  for 
this  world,  and  that  the  heart's  deepest  need  is 
a  knowledge  of  the  Great  Companion.  Al- 
though Mary  did  not  see  what  the  shepherds 
on  the  hillside  saw,  and  was  not  led  as  were 
the  Magians  in  the  Far  East,  yet  the  one  star 
that  shone  in  her  maiden  heart  and  made  her 
a  heroine  among  the  women  of  the  world,  was 
her  virgin  faith  in  the  Great  Companion.  She 
had  discovered  the  one  refuge  from  all  lone- 
liness. 

It  is  like  this :  A  *'Nixie"  clerk  in  the  Post 
[70] 


THE    LONELINESS    OF    CHRISTMAS 

Ofifice  is  one  who  handles  all  mail  with  insuf- 
ficient or  illegible  addresses.  All  letters  ad- 
dressed to  Santa  Claus,  therefore,  come  to  his 
department.  In  one  of  our  large  cities  on  a 
certain  Christmas  eve  a  Nixie  clerk  worked 
late  at  his  desk.  He  was  sad  and  lonely  be- 
cause the  shadow  of  a  great  sorrow  rested  over 
him.  When  the  messenger  handed  him  the 
last  few  nixies,  he  took  up  the  first,  a  tiny 
crumpled  envelope,  and  found  a  note  attached 
to  it  by  the  carrier,  reading — "This  was  given 
me  by  a  little  girl  at  No.  302  Walnut  Street." 
The  clerk's  blood  tingled,  for  that  was  his  own 
home,  and  now  he  noticed  his  own  little  girl's 
cramped  writing.  Although  the  letter  was  ad- 
dressed to  "Santa  Claus,  North  Pole,"  he  felt 
he  had  a  right  to  open  it,  for  in  this  case  he 
was  Santa  Claus'  partner.  When  he  opened 
it  this  is  what  he  read : 

"Dear  Santa  Claus:  We  are  very  sad  at 
our  home  this  year,  and  I  don't  want  you  to 
bring  me  anything.  Little  Charlie,  my  brother, 
went  up  to  heaven  last  week,  and  all  I  want 
you  to  do  when  you  come  to  my  house  is  to 
take  his  toys  to  him.  I  will  leave  them  in  the 
corner  by  the  chimney,  his  hobby-horse,  and 
train,  and  everything.     He  will  be  lost  up  in 

[71] 


THE    LEGEND    OF    THE    CHRISTMAS    ROSE 

heaven  without  them,  especially  his  horse.  He 
always  enjoyed  riding  it  so  much.  So  you 
must  take  them  to  him,  and  you  needn't  mind 
leaving  anything  for  me.  If  you  could  give 
papa  something  that  would  make  him  stop  cry- 
ing all  the  time,  it  would  be  the  best  you  could 
do  for  me.  I  heard  him  tell  mamma  that  'only 
eternity  could  cure  him.'  Could  you  give  him 
some  of  that?  Be  sure  to  take  the  things  to 
Charlie,  and  I  will  be  your  good  little  girl. 

"Marian." 

Whether  Santa  Claus  had  any  "eternity"  to 
give  away  to  this  father  is  not  told,  but  the  re- 
quest which  his  little  girl  made  is  the  most 
fitting  request  to  be  made  of  Santa  Claus  by 
lonely  children  of  all  ages;  and  that  means  all 
of  us. 

The  natural  prayer  of  all  such  lonely  hearts 
is  the  one  uttered  by  the  blind  poet-preacher, 
Matheson,  "My  heart  needs  Thee,  O  Lord.  No 
part  of  my  being  needs  Thee  like  my  heart. 
All  else  within  me  can  be  filled  by  Thy  gifts. 
My  hunger  can  be  satisfied  by  daily  bread.  My 
thirst  can  be  allayed  by  earthly  waters.  My 
cold  can  be  removed  by  household  fires.  My 
weariness  can  be  relieved  by  outward  rest. 
But    this    world    has    not    provided    for    my 

[72] 


THE    LONELINESS    OF    CHRISTMAS 

heart.  It  has  provided  for  my  eye;  it  has 
provided  for  my  ear;  it  has  provided  for 
my  touch ;  it  has  provided  for  my  taste ;  it  has 
provided  for  my  sense  of  beauty, — but  it  has 
not  provided  for  my  heart.  Provide  Thou  for 
my  heart.  Be  Thou  its  covert  in  the  storm,  its 
star  in  the  night,  its  voice  in  the  soHtude !  Keep 
it  under  the  shadow  of  Thine  own  wings!" 

Whenever  loneHness  understands  thus  the 
cause  that  produces  it  and  utters  the  language 
of  such  a  cry,  it  reveals  to  man  his  own  great- 
ness. He  then  discovers  that  loneliness  is  the 
price  he  pays  for  immortality.  If  eternity  did 
not  nestle  in  his  heart  he  would  be  satisfied  as 
he  is.  "All  men  feel  lonely  in  proportion  as  they 
are  sensitive  and  noble."  Every  true  man  feels 
that  he  is  born  in  exile,  and  the  mood  of  lone- 
liness comes  to  him  at  Christmas  because  he 
is  homesick  for  a  world  where  the  Christmas 
spirit  shall  come  fully  into  play.  Christmas  Day 
would  not  disappoint  had  he  not  dreamed  o£ 
a  better.  He  had  dreamed  of  a  beatific  vision. 
He  had  dreamed  of  an  unclouded  moment  of 
supreme  happiness.  He  had  come  to  think 
that  his  unsatisfied  hunger  for  joy  would  on 
one  day  at  least  be  appeased.  Then  he  dis- 
covered, when  the  day  was  done,  that  his  ex- 
perience was  like  that  of  all  the  seers  and  poets 

[73] 


THE    LEGEND    OF    THE    CHRISTMAS    ROSE 

of  the  past.  They,  too,  had  dreamed  of  a 
beatific  vision  and  tried  to  grasp  it,  but  it  al- 
ways eluded  them. 

Moses,  in  the  supreme  hour  of  his  life,  the 
hour  of  his  great  renunciation,  asked  that  he 
might  have  a  complete  beatific  vision ;  he  called 
it  the  glory  of  God.  He  was  told  that  he  could 
see  God's  back  but  not  His  face.  Only  a  par- 
tial vision  was  possible, — he  saw  only  the  train 
of  its  robe.  Faust's  life  goes  out  after  he  had 
experienced  one  moment  of  bliss,  the  hour 
when  he  felt  that  at  last  his  will  was  in  har- 
mony with  God's.  It  seems  a  small  reward  for 
a  long  life  of  effort,  but  Goethe  knew  life  when 
he  gave  Faust  only  a  glimpse  of  beatitude.  Abt 
Vogler,  in  Browning's  poem,  only  once  in  all 
his  musical  career  has  the  rapture  of  one  cre- 
ative moment  of  supreme  satisfaction  and  then 
it  flees  and  will  not  be  caught  again  for  all  his 
effort.  Dante,  in  his  'Taradiso,"  perhaps  more 
than  any  other,  has  attempted  to  describe  the 
nature  of  the  beatific  vision.  "It  is  like  this," 
he  says,  and  then  describes  it  in  terms  of  light. 
And  when  he  is  done  he  says,  ''No,  it  is  not 
that;  it  is  like  this."  Then  he  describes  it  in 
terms  of  music.  And  when  he  is  done,  again 
he  says,  "No,  it  is  not  that ;  it  is  like  this,"  and 
he  describes  it  in  terms  of  motion.    When  he 

[74] 


THE    LONELINESS    OF    CHRISTMAS 

has  finished,  however,  he  discovers  that  he  has 
not  described  it  after  all,  for  it  cannot  be  told. 

The  beatific  vision  could  be  grasped  and  de- 
scribed if  it  were  not  for  one  thing. — It  is  too 
large.  It  is  its  greatness  which  baffles  descrip- 
tion. Is  there  any  who  would  wish  it  to  be 
made  smaller?  Certainly  not  the  lonely  folks. 
They,  least  of  all,  for  loneliness  has  itself  en- 
larged their  hearts  and  increased  their  hunger 
for  a  beatitude,  which  eye  hath  not  seen  nor 
ear  heard.  It  is  this  never  satisfied  desire  for 
the  beatific  vision  which  makes  life  bearable 
and  makes  it  great.  Life  cannot  be  great  with- 
out being  also  lonely.  This  is  the  secret  cause 
of  the  spirit  of  loneliness  which  makes  its  visit 
on  Christmas  night. 

Man's  loneliness  is  man's  birthmark;  de- 
signed to  remind  him  of  the  heart's  true  father- 
land to  which  he  journeys ;  designed  to  remind 
him  that  nightly  he  ought  to  pitch  his  mov- 
ing tent  a  day's  march  nearer  home.  Man's 
loneliness  is  the  thorn  which  accompanies  the 
rose.  Once  let  a  man  discover  the  real  cause 
for  his  mood  of  loneliness,  and  he  will  not  com- 
plain because  God  puts  thorns  with  roses,  but 
will  thank  Him  because  He  puts  roses  with 
thorns. 

[75] 


IV 


THE  EVENING  HYMN  TO  THE  VIRGIN 

From  a  Painting  by  William  A.  Bouguereau 

The  original  of  this  picture  is  ozvned  by  Mr.  John 
Wanmnaker,  and  is  in  his  private  collection  in  Phila- 
delphia.   It  is  here  reproduced  by  his  kind  permission. 


77 


"  'What  means  this  glory  round  our  feet,' 
The  Magi  mused,  'more  bright  than  morn  ?' 
And  voices  chanted  clear  and  sweet, 
'Today  the  Prince  of  Peace  is  born !' 

"  'What  means  that  star,'  the  shepherds  said, 
'That  brightens  through  the  rocky  glen?' 
And  angels,  answering  overhead, 

Sang,  'Peace  on  earth,  good  will  to  men!' 

"And  they  who  do  their  souls  no  wrong. 
But  keep  at  eve  the  faith  of  morn, 
Shall  daily  hear  the  angel-song, 

'Today  the  Prince  of  Peace  is  born !' " 

— James  Russell  Loivell. 


[78] 


THE  EVENING  HYMN  TO  THE  VIRGIN 
By  William  A.  Bouguereau 


INTERPRETATION— THE  MUSIC  OF 
THE  FIRST  CHRISTMAS 


[8i] 


' 


"There  are  songs  which  can  only  be  learned  in  the 
valley,  no  art  can  teach  them ;  no  rules  of  voice  can 
make  them  perfectly  sung.  Their  music  is  in  the 
heart.  They  are  songs  of  memory,  of  personal  ex- 
perience. And  so,  my  soul,  thou  art  receiving  a 
music  lesson  from  thy  Father.  Thou  art  being  educated 
for  the  choir  invisible.  There  are  parts  of  the  sym- 
phony that  none  can  take  but  thee.  There  are  chords  too 
minor  for  the  angels.  There  may  be  heights  in  the 
symphony  which  are  beyond  thy  scale — heights  which 
the  angels  alone  can  reach.  But  there  are  depths  which 
belong  to  thee  and  can  only  be  touched  by  thee.  Thy 
Father  is  training  thee  for  the  part  the  angels  cannot 
sing :  and  the  school  is  sorrow.  Despise  not  thy  school 
of  sorrow,  O  my  soul ;  it  will  give  thee  a  unique  part 
in  the  universal  song." 

— Geors'e  Matheson. 


[82] 


THE  MUSIC  OF  THE  FIRST 
CHRISTMAS 

ALMOST  all  the  characters  in  the  story 
of  the  first  Christmas  talk  poetry 
as  if  it  were  their  natural  ele- 
ment. Every  reader  of  Luke's  ac- 
count of  it  is  impressed  by  this  outstanding 
feature  of  the  story.  When  Mary  courageously 
journeys  to  the  hill  country  to  visit  Elisabeth, 
and  Elisabeth  offers  her  salutation,  she  ex- 
presses it  in  a  hymn  of  benediction.  Mary's 
answer  to  it  is  her  famous  Magnificat,  her  first 
song,  and  also  the  swan-song  of  her  life.  At 
the  birth  of  John,  Zacharias  sings  a  hymn  of 
praise  and  prophecy.  The  angel  who  notifies 
the  shepherds  of  the  birth  at  Bethlehem  can- 
not deliver  his  message  without  putting  it  into 
poetic  form.  The  overture  of  angels  in  the 
clear  Syrian  sky  is  in  Hebrew  verse.  When 
the  mysterious  Child  is  brought  to  the  Temple, 
the  aged  Simeon  chants  his  ''Nunc  dimittis." 

These  are  the  matin  songs  of  Christianity. 
Bouguereau's   picture,    therefore,    represents 

[83] 


THE    LEGEND    OF    THE    CHRISTMAS    ROSE 

one  of  the  chief  features  of  the  Christmas 
story.  The  one  thing  which  the  picture  says 
is  that  the  coming  of  the  Christ-Child  set  hearts 
and  tongues  a-singing  and  stirred  emotions 
which  could  be  expresed  only  by  music. 

What  was  there  in  the  Christmas  story  that 
made  music  the  fitting  accompaniment  of  the 
coming  of  the  Christ-Child?  What  was  the 
element  in  it  that  could  not  be  told  in  prose,  but 
demanded  a  musical  form?  What  is  it  that 
makes  music  and  Christianity  so  much  akin? 
Of  all  the  arts  music  owes  most  to  Christianity, 
and  of  all  the  arts  music  is  most  congenial  to 
its  soul. 

"See  deep  enough  and  you  see  musically," 
said  Thomas  Carlyle.  All  deep  things  are 
melodious.  What  is  the  deep  and  fundamental 
fact  in  the  first  Christmas  story  which  made 
prose  inadequate  to  its  telling?  It  is  a  wise 
saying  of  Aristotle  that  "Poetry  is  more  seri- 
ous and  more  philosophical  than  History."  His- 
tory is  the  ordered  record  of  facts.  Poetry  is 
the  embodiment  of  the  inner  meaning  of  those 
facts.  A  fact  is  never  fully  known  till  its  inner 
meaning  is  known.  The  writers  of  the  first 
Christmas  story  use  poetry,  because  it  is  their 
purpose  to  tell  not  the  mere  facts,  but  their 
inner  meaning.     What  is  the  inner  meaning 

[84] 


THE    MUSIC   OF   THE    FIRST    CHRISTMAS 

of  these  facts  which  poetry  alone  can  ex- 
press? 

At  first  thought  one  supposes  that  he  ex- 
plains the  affinity  between  music  and  the  Christ- 
mas story  by  saying  that  it  is  because  music 
is  the  expression  of  joy,  and  therefore  it  was 
naturally  employed  to  celebrate  the  coming  of 
the  Christ-Child,  whose  mission  it  was  to  bring 
peace  and  joy  and  good  will  to  men.  He  soon 
discovers,  however,  that  this  is  not  an  adequate 
explanation,  because  music  is  used  to  express 
sadness  as  well  as  joy.  No  art  is  more  suit- 
able for  the  expression  of  sorrow  than  is  music. 
Indeed,  a  tendency  to  sadness  seems  inherent 
in  music.  The  experience  of  Jessica  may  be 
said  to  be  typical,  when  she  confessed,  "I  am 
never  merry  when  I  hear  sweet  music." 

In  point  of  fact,  music  is  the  chosen  art  of 
pessimism,  as  well  as  the  chosen  art  of  Christi- 
anity. Some  of  the  best  things  ever  said  of 
the  power  and  function  of  music  have  been  said 
by  the  pessimistic  Schopenhauer.  Pessimism, 
as  a  religion,  assigns  a  supreme  place  to  music. 
It  has  produced  a  great  master  of  musical  art, 
Richard  Wagner,  and  has  discovered  in  his 
music  the  best  illustration  of  the  secret  sym- 
pathy between  the  soul  of  music  and  its  own. 
Any  explanation,  therefore,  of  the  congenial 

[85] 


THE    LEGEND    OF    THE    CHRISTMAS    ROSE 

relation  between  music  and  Christianity  must 
be  one  which  will  at  the  same  time  explain  the 
same  relation  between  music  and  sorrow. 

For  the  universal  use  of  music  both  before 
and  after  the  first  Christmas,  one  must  search 
for  a  deeper  cause  than  that  music  is  the  ex- 
pression of  joy.  The  sufficient  explanation  is 
to  be  found  in  the  needed  and  beautiful  service 
which  music,  in  common  with  all  other  arts, 
renders  to  man, — to  the  man  who  is  a  Christian, 
and  the  man  who  is  not.  The  real  service 
which  music  renders  lies  in  the  fact  that  it  fur- 
nishes a  means  of  escape  from  an  imperfect 
and  discordant  world  into  a  world  of  beauty 
and  harmony  which  man  has  created  out  of 
music  as  a  retreat  and  sanctuary  for  his  spirit. 
He  is  led  to  seek  such  a  retreat  because  life,  as 
he  knows  it,  seems  confused,  ill-adjusted,  and 
meaningless.  He  is  perplexed  by  his  experi- 
ence. He  is  bewildered  by  such  facts  as  famine, 
accident,  disease,  the  death  of  dear  ones,  sep- 
aration of  friends,  loneliness,  doubt,  sin,  sor- 
row and  folly.  The  burden  and  pressure  of 
life  weigh  heavily  upon  any  thinking  man.  The 
heart  cries  out  for  an  explanation  of  a  world 
which  men  find  too  big  for  them. 

To  man,  thus  confused  and  bewildered,  art 
renders  a  supreme  service.    It  creates  and  pre- 

[86] 


THE    MUSIC   OF   THE    FIRST    CHRISTMAS 

sents  to  his  spirit  a  beauty,  harmony,  and  per- 
fection, which  his  soul  craves.  Art  creates  a 
world  of  its  own,  from  which  discords  and  im- 
perfections are  excluded.  Daniel  Gregory 
Mason,  with  clear  insight,  pointed  out  that  the 
secret  of  art's  power  lies  in  its  method  of  ex- 
cluding what  is  discordant  and  irrelevant.  If 
a  tree  violates  the  proportion  of  a  landscape, 
the  painter  omits  it  from  his  composition. 
Raphael  says,  "We  paint  nature  not  as  she  is, 
but  as  she  ought  to  be."  In  real  life  Pippa 
would  be  a  poor  mill-girl  insulted  by  a  thou- 
sand sordid  and  accidental  details,  but  in 
Browning's  poem  she  is  a  gentle,  noble  soul 
bringing  goodness  everywhere.  The  poet  does 
not  make  her  talk  in  character,  and  for  good  rea- 
son. Browning  believed  it  was  the  poet's  func- 
tion to  express  for  men  and  women,  not  what 
they  ordinarily  say,  and  what  any  one  can  hear 
them  say  any  day,  but  to  express  for  them 
the  hidden  sentiments  and  aspirations  of  the 
heart,  which  they  cannot  express  for  them- 
selves. The  poet  sees  men  and  women  as  God 
sees  them.  By  this  method  art  presents  to 
man's  vision  a  perfect  ideal,  which  is  suited  to 
his  soul's  need. 

Music,  with  its  ninety  fixed  tones  which  are 
"pre-ordained  to  harmony,"  is  of  all  arts  the 

[87] 


THE    LEGEND    OF    THE    CHRISTMAS    ROSE 

most  capable  of  expressing  the  desires  and  feel- 
ings of  the  heart.  It  is  the  most  free  of  limi- 
tations. Unlike  other  arts,  it  does  not  repre- 
sent external  objects,  but  speaks  directly  to 
the  soul.  It  uses  only  invisible  sound  waves. 
It  is  builded  of  breath  alone.  A  piece  of  music 
lies  cold  and  dead  upon  the  page.  It  does  not 
live  until  it  is  translated  into  sound.  Then  it 
dies  upon  the  vibrating  air  and  must  be  created 
anew  each  time  we  wish  to  hear  it.  Science 
cannot  explain  the  mysterious  connection  be- 
tween sound  sensations  and  the  emotions  of 
the  heart.  But  all  are  familiar  with  the  ex- 
traordinary power  of  music  to  speak  of  love 
or  joy  or  sorrow  directly  to  the  heart.  Music 
is  at  once  the  most  intangible  and  the  most 
spiritual  of  the  arts.  It  is  the  only  art  which 
cannot  be  prostituted  to  a  bad  use.  "A  maiden 
may  sing  of  her  lost  love,  but  a  miser  cannot 
sing  of  his  lost  money."  Music  is  the  only 
art  of  earth  which  man  is  said  to  carry  with 
him  to  use  in  Paradise. 

"Music  is  a  woman,"  says  Wagner.  It 
makes  no  appeal  to  the  logical  intellect,  but 
speaks  to  the  heart.  It  does  not  reason  a  man 
out  of  his  distraction,  but  by  the  expulsive  pow- 
er of  a  new  affection,  it  banishes  the  discords 
by  introducing  harmony  to  the  emotions,  and 

[88] 


THE    MUSIC   OF   THE    FIRST    CHRISTMAS 

to  the  troubled  feelings  it  brings  peace  and 
rest.  The  sweet  melancholy  inspired  by  distant 
church  bells  on  a  calm  summer  evening  in  the 
country,  and  the  invigorating  effect  of  martial 
music  on  weary  soldiers,  are  familiar  illus- 
trations of  both  the  tonic  and  tranquillizing 
power  of  music.  Wordsworth's  poem,  "The 
Power  of  Music,"  describes  the  magic  results 
produced  by  an  Oxford  fiddler  on  passers-by 
and  how  through  his  music — 

"The  weary  have  life  and  the  hungry  have  bliss, 
The  mourner  is  cheered  and  the  anxious  have  rest, 
And  the  guilt-burdened  soul  is  no  longer  oppressed." 

It  is  quite  apparent  why  music  and  pessim- 
ism are  congenial.  To  the  pessimist  music  is 
a  relief  and  escape  from  the  discords  and  de- 
fects which  pain  and  disturb  him.  "As  when 
one  rises  in  a  balloon  the  earth  seems  fading 
away  under  him,  and  all  its  hard  outlines 
change  into  a  picture,  so  as  we  listen  to  great 
music,  life  grows  transfigured;  the  weariness 
of  years  falls  from  us,  and  we  renew  our  youth, 
our  hope,  our  love." 

For  the  same  reason  also,  music  and  Christi- 
anity are  congenial.  There  is  a  real  point  of 
contact   between   the   Christian   religion    and 

[89] 


THE    LEGEND    OF    THE    CHRISTMAS    ROSE 

pessimism.  Indeed,  Christianity  is  not  with- 
out an  element  of  pessimism,  if  we  use  the 
word  in  its  nobler  sense.  The  Christian  does 
not  look  on  this  world  as  perfect;  far  from 
it.  He,  too,  longs  for  a  better  world  than  he 
finds  this  one  to  be.  For  him  also,  music  ex- 
presses a  desire  for  a  harmony  and  beauty  he 
now  possesses  only  in  part.  The  Christian,  too, 
has  discovered  that  this  world  pays  no  promise 
in  full.  It  was  for  this  very  reason,  chiefly, 
that  the  coming  of  the  Christ-Child  was  ac- 
companied with  music.  Men  looked  to  Him 
as  the  harmonizer ;  looked  to  Him  to  lead  their 
feet  into  the  way  of  peace,  and  reconcile  them 
to  a  world  they  could  not  understand. 

There  is  this  notable  difference,  however,  be- 
tween the  music  of  the  pessimist  and  that  of 
the  Christian.  Music,  to  the  pessimist,  ex- 
presses only  his  desire  for  harmony.  Music  to 
the  Christian  expresses  the  same  thing  and  in 
addition  it  expresses  the  joyous  possession  of 
a  harmony  already  in  his  heart.  One  ex- 
presses a  wish;  the  other  celebrates  a  fact.  To 
the  Christian  the  wish  has  become  a  fact,  be- 
cause the  Christ-Child  has  taught  him  how  to 
make  reconciliation  with  a  world  which  only 
pains  the  pessimist.  Tribulations,  which  cause 
only  sorrow  to  some,  are  things  in  which  Paul 

[90] 


THE   MUSIC   OF  THE   FIRST    CHRISTMAS 

glories  because  they  put  a  new  song  in  his 
heart;  a  song  which  can  be  learned  only  in 
the  valley.  It  is  the  new  song  which  the  Babe 
of  Bethlehem  taught  the  world  to  sing,  and  the 
man  who  has  learned  how  to  sing  it  has  made 
the  conquest  of  life.  John  Keats'  well-known 
admiration  for  the  nightingale  is  founded  upon 
the  fact  that  this  bird  makes  a  practice  of  ar- 
tificially stimulating  its  centers  of  voice-pro- 
duction by  causing  its  breast  to  impinge  upon  a 
thorn.  The  use  of  the  pain  as  a  means  of 
adding  depth  and  richness  to  the  music  is  a 
high  achievement  in  bird  or  man. 

To  impinge  one's  heart  on  a  thorn  is  painful, 
very  painful,  and  there  are  some  sorrows,  in 
view  of  which  any  easy  and  ready  explanation 
seems  like  an  insult  to  thinking  men.  It  was 
a  supremely  difficult  task  which  the  Babe  of 
Bethlehem  set  Himself,  to  strew  with  flowers 
this  world's  open  graves,  to  flood  with  sunshine 
this  world's  darkened  rooms,  to  fill  with  music 
this  world's  wounded  hearts.  A  hard  task 
indeed,  but  He  performed  it.  He  gave  no  easy 
explanations;  He  did  something  better;  He 
helped  men  to  accomplish  the  apparently  im- 
possible; He  taught  sad  hearts  to  sing  when 
wounded  by  thorns.  The  glory  of  Christian 
music  is  that  it  is  nightingale  music.     It  is 

[91] 


THE    LEGEND    OF    THE    CHRISTMAS    ROSE 

sung  in  the  shadows.  It  is  sung  not  only  in 
spite  of  pain,  but  sometimes  because  of  it. 

This  is  the  note  of  joy  and  triumph  in  all 
Christian  music.  This  accounts  for  the  mar- 
velous progress  made  by  music  as  an  art,  since 
the  Christ-Child  came.  If  it  had  not  been  for 
the  Christmas  story,  no  such  song  could  have 
been  written  or  sung  as  Franz  Abt's  **Apos- 
trophe  to  Tears."  Music  speaks  a  twofold 
language  to  the  Christian.  It  expresses  his  de- 
sire for  harmony  and  celebrates  his  joyous 
possession  of  it,  because  there  exists  already 
a  music  in  his  heart.  "The  melody  of  the 
heart,"  Paul  calls  it.  ''Unheard  melodies," 
Keats  calls  it.  This  unsung  harmony  of  the 
heart  constituted  the  real  music  of  the  first 
Christmas.  The  evening  hymn  which  the  an- 
gels in  Bouguereau's  picture  play  to  Mary,  is 
only  the  symbol  of  a  melody  already  in  her 
heart,  weary  and  lonely  though  she  be. 

The  unheard  melody  of  the  heart  is  the  dis- 
tinctive and  notable  element  of  all  Christian 
music,  by  virtue  of  which  all  heard  melodies 
can  be  best  appreciated.  Raphael,  in  his  pic- 
ture of  Saint  Cecilia,  the  inventor  of  the  organ 
and  the  patron  saint  of  music,  puts  a  broken 
organ  in  her  hand,  and  introduces  other  mu- 
sical instruments,  which  lie  broken  at  her  feet, 

[92] 


THE    MUSIC   OF   THE   FIRST    CHRISTMAS 

while  she  stands  entranced  by  the  sounds  from 
a  heavenly  choir  above  her.  By  this  the  artist 
says  that,  when  the  unheard  harmonies  of 
heaven  break  upon  the  heart,  all  earthly  music 
in  comparison  grows  less  and  less  attractive, 
even  though  one  be  a  musical  artist  as  Ce- 
cilia was. 

The  heart  which  is  thus  in  tune  with  the  In- 
finite, has  the  best  of  all  music,  the  music  of 
the  first  Christmas,  a  music  that  does  not  die 
in  the  vibrating  air.  The  man  who  does  his 
own  soul  no  wrong,  but  keeps  until  the  eve  of 
his  life  the  morning  faith  of  his  childhood  can 
always  hear  and  sing  such  music.  Such  a 
heart  has  in  it  a  little  room,  with  storied  walls 
and  painted  windows,  from  which  nightingales 
are  heard  to  sing.  Such  a  heart  says,  with 
Keats,  "Heard  melodies  are  sweet,  but  those 
unheard  are  sweeter."  To  such  the  music  of 
man's  art  speaks  a  deeper  language,  because 
it  is  answered  by  an  echo  in  the  heart.  To 
hearts  attuned  to  unheard  melodies,  all  earthly 
music  speaks  a  language  like  that  of  the  birds' 
song  to  Mrs.  Browning: 

"Oh,  the  Httle  birds  sang  east, 
And  the  little  birds  sang  west, 
And  I  smiled  to  think  God's  Greatness 
Flowed   around   our   incompleteness, 
Round  our  restlessness,  His  rest." 
[93] 


V 


"THE  ARRIVAL  AT  BETHLEHEM" 

From  a  Painting  by  Luc-Olivier  Merson 

The  original  of  this  picture  is  now  in  the  Museum 
of  Mulhouse,  Alsace-Loraine.  It  was  painted  in  1884. 
Mr.  Merson  won  the  French  Government's  Rome 
Scholarship  and  in  1892  became  a  member  of  the 
Institute. 


[95] 


"O  little  town  of  Bethlehem, 

How  still  we  see  thee  lie! 
Above  thy  deep  and  dreamless  sleep, 

The  silent  stars  go  by; 
Yet  in  thy  dark  streets  shineth 

The  everlasting  Light ; 
The  hopes  and  fears  of  all  the  years 

Are  met  in  thee  to-night. 

"How  silently,  how  silently. 

The  wondrous  gift  is  given ! 
So  God  imparts  to  human  hearts 

The  blessings  of  his  heaven. 
No  ear  may  hear  his  coming, 

But  in  this  world  of  sin, 
Where  meek  souls  will  receive  him  still. 

The  dear  Christ  enters  in," 

— Phillips  Brooks. 


[96] 


THE  ARRIVAL  AT  BETHLEHEM 
By  Luc-Olivier  Merson 


INTERPRETATION— MAKING  ROOM 
FOR  CHRISTMAS 


[99] 


SONG  OF  HOPE 

Children  of  yesterday,  heirs  of  tomorrow, 
What  are  you  weaving?    Labor  and  sorrow. 
Look  at  your  loom  again;  faster  and  faster 
Fly  the  great  shuttles  prepared  by  the  Master, 
There's   life   in  the   loom; 
Room  for  it ! 
Room ! 

Children  of  yesterday,  heirs  of  tomorrow, 
Lighten  your  labor  and  sweeten  your  sorrow 
Now  while  the  shuttles  fly  faster  and  faster 
Up  be  and  at  it,  at  work  for  the  Master. 
He  stands  at  the  loom; 
Room   for   Him ! 
Room! 

Children  of  yesterday,  heirs  of  tomorrow. 
Look  at  your  fabric  of  labor  and  sorrow, 
Seamy  and  dark  with  despair  and  disaster, 
Turn  it  and  lo!    the  design  of  the   Master. 
The  Lord's  at  the  loom, 
Room   for   Him ! 
Room! 

— Mary  A.  Lathbury. 


[  100  ] 


MAKING  ROOM  FOR  CHRISTMAS 

AS  a  child  looks  on  Christmas  as  the 
turning  point  in  his  calendar,  so 
the  nations  count  time  from  the  first 
Christmas  as  if  nothing  which  hap- 
pened before  was  worth  recording;  as  if  the 
years  before  seemed  like  long  rows  of  ciphers 
with  no  numeral  preceding  them  to  give  them 
value ;  as  if  the  world  had  begun  all  over  again 
when  Jesus  was  born  in  a  stable.  Every  time 
men  use  the  abbreviations,  "A.  D.,"  and  write 
a  date  on  their  letter  heads,  they  testify  to 
the  fact  that  Christ's  coming  was  the  turn- 
ing point  of  history.  Of  course  it  is  not  true 
that  events  preceding  the  first  Christmas  are 
not  worth  recording,  for  Christ  was  in  the 
world  before  Jesus  slept  his  first  sleep  in 
Bethlehem's  manger,  but  it  is  true  that  these 
events  acquire  worth  in  proportion  as  they  are 
related  to  this  central  fact  of  history.  They 
are  like  tidal  rivers  which  flow  to  Him  and 
the  ebb  of  the  tide  bears  back  into  these 
streams  of  events,  a  fulness  of  meaning  bor- 
rowed from  the  central  figure  from  which  they 

ebb. 

[  loi  ] 


THE    LEGEND    OF    THE    CHRISTMAS    ROSE 

The  true  estimate  of  the  value  of  the  first 
Christmas  for  the  world  is  strikingly  revealed 
by  those  tidal  rivers  which  flowed  to  the  little 
Babe,  and  constituted  the  "fulness  of  the  time" 
for  His  coming.  While  men  found  no  room 
for  Him  in  Bethlehem's  inn,  room  had  been 
prepared  for  Him  in  the  world's  history.  Room 
was  made  for  the  Christ  by  three  great  tidal 
rivers — three  events  which  made  the  speedy 
spread  of  the  Christmas  spirit  possible.  These 
events  were  the  career  of  Alexander  the  Great, 
the  rise  of  the  Roman  empire,  and  the  dis- 
persion of  the  Jews.  The  Jews  and  the  Greeks 
and  the  Romans  were  the  three  deadly  enemies 
of  the  new  King,  and  yet  the  religion  of  the 
new  time  came  from  the  Judean  Capital,  Jeru- 
salem, the  fountain  head  of  the  religious  life 
of  the  world;  it  was  preached  in  the  tongue 
of  Athens,  the  fountain  head  of  the  secular 
knowledge  of  the  world;  and  it  was  spread  by 
means  of  the  Roman  empire.  The  new  faith 
spread  with  amazing  rapidity  only  because  of 
the  unwilling  service  of  its  three  greatest  ene- 
mies. 

The  Jew  was  dispersed  along  the  shores  of 
the  Mediterranean.  He  could  be  found  in  al- 
most every  known  country,  but  he  did  not  find 
a  home  in  any.    As  the  soil  of  his  native  land, 

[102] 


MAKING    ROOM    FOR    CHRISTMAS 

the  deeds  of  his  people  and  the  graves  of  his 
fathers,  draw  the  far  off  wanderer  to  the  home 
of  his  childhood  and  fill  the  mountaineer  in 
his  exile  with  irrepressible  longing,  such  was 
the  Jewish  exile's  feeling  for  his  Judean  hills. 
These  pilgrim  Jews  with  their  spiritual  religion 
greatly  helped  to  weaken  an  already  decaying 
paganism.  It  had  failed  to  satisfy  spiritual 
needs.  The  priest  no  longer  believed  what  he 
said.  Two  priests  could  not  meet  each  other 
on  the  streets  without  laughing  in  each  other's 
faces.  Hence  morality  ceased  to  exist.  For 
no  nation  has  ever  risen  above  its  religion. 
Seneca  said,  "Crime  is  no  more  secret,  but 
stalks  before  the  eyes  of  men ;  innocence  is  not 
only  rare,  but  does  not  exist  at  all."  Virgil 
wrote  his  great  poem  to  revive  the  spirit  of 
the  old  religion  and  stop  the  ruin  into  which 
the  religious  life  had  crumbled,  but  in  vain. 
It  was  too  late.  When  the  gospel  of  the  new 
King  began  to  make  its  appeal,  it  was  to  a 
world  which  had  been  made  to  feel  its  need, 
a  need  emphasized  by  the  failure  of  the  old 
religion;  a  need,  the  answer  to  which  had  al- 
ready been  indicated  by  the  pilgrim  Jew,  who 
was  God's  specialist  in  religion. 

The  Roman  empire  furnished  what  the  new 
religion  needed  if  it  was  to  become  universal. 
[103] 


THE    LEGEND    OF    THE    CHRISTMAS    ROSE 

That  Empire  was  wide  spread.  England  her- 
self was  one  of  her  outlying  posts.  She  had 
one  system  of  law  and  united  all  peoples  under 
it.  She  allowed  all  conquered  nations  to  en- 
joy the  religion  of  their  ancestors.  She  tol- 
erated all  religions.  Christianity,  therefore, 
had  equal  rights  with  all  others.  All  that  the 
new  religion  needed  was  a  chance  to  be  heard. 
Rome  gave  her  that  chance.  In  the  forum  at 
Rome  Augustus  placed  a  bronze  column,  and 
on  it  inscribed  in  gold  letters  the  name  and 
distance  of  every  important  city  on  the  roads 
leaving  Rome.  It  was  called  the  "Golden 
Milestone."  From  it  a  military  road  was  built 
to  every  province  as  soon  as  it  was  subdued. 
By  relays  of  horses  kept  in  fortified  posts, 
couriers  moved  from  the  golden  milestone  to 
all  important  centers  of  the  empire  at  the  rate 
of  a  hundred  miles  a  day.  Unconsciously  to 
herself,  she  was  preparing  a  highway  in  the 
desert  for  the  spread  of  the  new  religion.  It 
was  due  partly  to  Rome's  reign  of  law  and 
her  means  of  easy  communication  that  an  un- 
unusual  and  universal  peace  reigned  when  the 
child-King  came: 

"No  war  or  battles'  sound 
Was  heard  the  world  around; 
The  idle  spear  and  shield  were  high  uphung; 
[  104] 


MAKING    ROOM    FOR    CHRISTMAS 

The  hooked  chariot  stood 

Unstain'd  with  hostile  blood ; 
The  trumpet  spake  not  to  the  armed  throng, 

And  Kings  sat  still  with  awful  eye, 
As  if  they  surely  knew  their  sover'n  Lord  was  by." 

The  Greek  language  was  a  tidal  river  whose 
importance  it  is  hard  to  overestimate.  The 
conquests  of  Alexander  made  it  universal.  He 
was  a  statesman,  as  well  as  a  soldier.  He 
founded  colonies,  and  the  Greek  language  and 
culture  and  civilization  spread  everywhere. 
Travel  and  commerce  were  as  easy  as  they 
were  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury. The  Greek  language  occupied  in  those 
days  the  place  that  English  occupies  today. 
"At  no  other  period  of  the  world's  history  has 
so  weighty  a  proportion  of  the  human  race 
been  acquainted  with  a  single  language  as  was 
familiar  with  Greek  when  Paul  began  to 
preach."  The  first  preachers  of  the  new  re- 
ligion found  ready  made  to  their  hands  a  lan- 
guage which  had  been  prepared  for  them  by 
the  labor  and  study  of  three  centuries.  In  it 
the  New  Testament  was  written.  Into  it  the 
Old  Testament  had  already  been  translated. 
"Athens  laid  the  wires  over  which  the  word 
of  God  was  flashed  to  the  ends  of  the  earth." 
[105] 


THE    LEGEND    OF    THE    CHRISTMAS    ROSE 

The  Greek  language  alone  was  adequate  to 
the  needs  of  New  Testament  thought  and 
without  it  Christianity  could  not,  for  centuries 
at  least,  have  been  preached  to  all  nations. 
The  fact  that  the  superscription  on  the  cross 
was  in  Hebrew  and  Greek  and  Latin  is  sig- 
nificant. It  was  a  cosmopolitan  world  into 
which  Jesus  was  born.  Every  historical  event 
has  its  roots  in  the  past  and  for  this  supreme 
historical  event,  there  was  such  a  preparation 
as  befitted  its  importance. 

The  contrast  between  the  reception  which 
the  preparation  for  Christ  in  history  would 
lead  one  to  expect  He  would  receive  and  the 
reception  which  He  actually  did  receive  is  a 
parable  of  the  fact  that  the  world's  valuation 
of  truth  is  not  heaven's.  The  contrast  between 
the  room  the  little  Babe  occupied  in  a  man- 
ger and  the  place  He  now  holds  in  the  world's 
history  has  in  it  the  element  of  tragedy.  It 
is  these  contrasts  which  have  always  given  a 
pathetic  interest  to  pictures  of  the  manger 
scenes  and  caused  men  to  linger  over  them  with 
a  feeling  of  tender  regret. 

So  little  did  men  appreciate  at  the  time  what 

manner  of  babe  it  was  that  was  first  cradled 

in  the  hay  of  Bethlehem's  manger,  that  the 

very  date  of    his    birth    was    lost.     No  man 

[io6] 


MAKING    ROOM    FOR    CHRISTMAS 

knows  when  Jesus  was  born.     The  chief  rea- 
son for  this  neglect  of  Christ's  birthday,  as 
Henry  van  Dyke  points  out,  was  the  fact  that 
such  a  home  and  human  scene  as  Christ's  birth 
did  not  mean  much  to  the  early  Christians,  "for 
this  world  was  a  hard  home  for  them."     In- 
deed, they  did  not  regard  it  as  a  home  at  all. 
They  were  persecuted  and  martyred  alike  by 
Jews  and  pagans.    It  was  little  benefit  to  them 
to  be  born.    To  die  was  their  true  escape  and 
felicity.     So  it  came  to  pass  that  they  lived 
much  in  the    heavenly    future,    despising  the 
present  life  and  celebrating  the  martyrs'  death 
days  as  their  true  birthdays.    Origen  says,  "No 
saint  can  be  found  who  ever  held  a  feast  or 
banquet  on  his  birthday  or  rejoiced  when  his 
son  or  daughter  was  born."     Whatever  the 
reason,  all  trace  of  the  date  of  the  nativity 
was  lost.     So  slowly  do  men  overtake  God, 
that  it  was  not  till  the  latter  half  of  the  fourth 
century,  when  the    church    enjoyed    imperial 
favor  and  when  she  saw  that  suffering  and 
death  were  not  the  only  Christian  duties,  but 
that  Christ  came  to  sanctify  and  beautify  this 
present  life,  not  till  then  did  men  begin  to 
value  Christ's  coming  at  heaven's  valuation. 

The  manner  in  which  Christ's  birthday  was 
determined  shows  what  a  central  place  in  his- 
[107] 


THE    LEGEND    OF    THE    CHRISTMAS    ROSE 

tory  men  were  willing  to  accord  to  the  infant 
King.    Some  said  it  was  the  twentieth  of  May, 
others  the  twentieth  of  April.     The  Eastern 
Church  celebrated  January  the  sixth.     How 
should  a  uniform  date  be  fixed  for  the  nativity? 
It  was  on  this  wise.    It  was  assumed  that  the 
world  was  created  in  the  spring,  because  it 
was  commanded  to  bring  forth  grass  and  herbs 
and  it  was  made  when  the  days  and  nights 
were  of  equal  length.     The  'Vernal  equinox," 
March  25th,  was  therefore,  fixed  on  as  the 
exact    date    of    the    creation.     If   this   was 
the    date    of    creation,    when    the    glorious 
light  sprang  out  of  darkness,  what  more  simple 
and  natural  than  to  suppose  that  it  was  on 
this  date,  that  the  power  of  the  Almighty  over- 
shadowed Mary  and  the  Dayspring  from  on 
high  entered  into  the  world?     It  was  a  very 
simple  thing  to    count    from    this    date  nine 
months  ahead  and  come  to  December  25th  as 
the  exact  date  of  Christ's  birth.     When  you 
have  done  this,  you  are  struck  by  a  wonderful 
coincidence,  for  December  25th  is  the  date  of 
the  winter  solstice,  the  day  when  the  world's 
darkness  begins  to  lessen  and  the  world's  light 
to  grow.     This    day    the    ancient  world  had 
long  celebrated  as  the  new  birth  of  the  all-con- 
quering sun.     Henceforth  it  was  to  be  cele- 
[108] 


MAKING    ROOM    FOR    CHRISTMAS 

brated  as  the  birthday  of  the  Son  of  righteous- 
ness. All  this  is  not  history,  nor  is  it  fiction, — 
it  is  poetic  fact.  It  is  historical  poetry.  Never 
before  was  such  poetry  worked  out  of  a  list  of 
dates.  It  is  the  kind  of  poetry  which  is  much 
truer  than  history.  It  is  a  parable  of  the  large 
room  which  the  child-King  had  come  to  occupy 
in  the  world's  life  and  thought. 

The  room  which  the  Christ-spirit  occupies 
at  any  one  time,  in  the  life  of  a  nation  or  an 
individual,  depends  on  the  nation's  or  indi- 
vidual's capacity  to  take  it  in,  just  as  the  light 
of  the  sun  is  variously  received  by  material 
substances.  The  dark  brown  earth  receives 
little  light  while  other  objects  such  as  stained 
glass  windows,  have  transparent  brightness,  so 
that  they  not  only  receive  much  light,  but  they 
do  not  intercept  it.  They  pass  it  on,  colored 
with  their  own  color,  to  other  things. 

One's  capacity  to  take  in  the  Christian  spirit 
is  determined  largely  by  the  degree  to  which 
his  life  is  filled  with  other  and  lesser  objects. 
It  is  a  truism  in  matters  of  the  spirit  that  a 
void  must  be  created  by  the  destruction  of  the 
false  before  the  true  can  be  received. 

It  is  not  the  children  who  have  the  most 
things  who  enjoy  the  most  the  things  they  have. 
To  give  children  all  the  pleasures  in  miniature 
[109] 


THE    LEGEND    OF    THE    CHRISTMAS    ROSE 

which  belong  to  middle  life,  is  a  cruel  kind- 
ness. It  robs  them  of  the  keen  sense  of  en- 
joyment because  it  leaves  them  no  room  for 
it.  If  the  Christ-spirit  is  to  be  entertained  with 
thankful  and  joyous  hospitality,  and  not 
crowded  out  into  the  mangers  of  men's  lives, 
room  must  be  made  and  kept  for  it.  Jesus  was 
entertained  in  a  manger  his  first  night  on  earth 
for  the  simple  reason  that  the  inn  was  already 
full  of  less  worthy  guests.  The  pathos  of  this 
situation  is  the  feeling  which  Merson  seeks  to 
convey  in  his  picture  of  Mary's  arrival  in 
Bethlehem.  The  sight  of  Joseph  and  Mary 
left  outside  the  inn  in  the  lonely  village  street 
on  a  winter  night  touches  a  universal  human 
emotion  in  all  sympathetic  hearts. 

And  yet  it  is  true  that  Jesus,  crowded  out 
of  the  inn  and  into  the  stable  is  a  parable  in 
action  of  a  constantly  re-enacted  tragedy.  He 
is  the  Master  of  the  Inn,  and  the  best  of  all 
guests  that  visit  the  human  soul,  yet  is  often 
crowded  out  through  lack  of  room. 

"No  room,  O  Babe  Divine,  for  thee 
That  Christmas  night,  and  even  we 
Dare  shut  our  hearts  and  turn  the  key." 

Whenever  men  do  not  make  room  for  the 
best;  whenever  they  fail  to  regard  big  things 
[no] 


MAKING    ROOM    FOR    CHRISTMAS 

as  big  and  little  things  as  little ;  whenever  they 
fail  to  put  first  things  first,  and  second  things 
second,  then  the  tragedy  enacted  at  Bethle- 
hem on  the  first  Christmas  night  is  enacted 
over  again. 

To  have  opportunity  knock  at  one's  door 
and  fail  to  open  the  door  is  nothing  short  of 
tragedy.  In  one  of  the  noblest  of  Christian 
poems,  "Easter  Day,"  Browning  takes  a  man 
in  vision  away  from  things  seen  and  ushers 
him  into  naked  realities  that  he  may  get  a  per- 
spective on  life  and  weigh  its  worth. 

A  voice  behind  the  beholder  says: 

"Life  is  done, 
Time  ends,  Eternity's  begun, 
And  thou  art  judged  forevermore." 

The  doomed  one  had  deliberately  chosen  the 
world, — the  things  of  time  and  sense.  For 
these  he  had  fought  and  sighed.  The  truth 
of  God,  the  best  and  noblest  things,  had  not 
interested  him.  His  sentence  was  that  he 
should  take  and  forever  keep  the  partial  good, 
the  lower  beauty  for  which  he  had  struggled. 
He  was  at  first  transported  with  the  idea. 
"Mine,  the  world?"  he  asked.  "Yes,"  said  the 
awful  Judge,  "if  you  are  satisfied  with  one  rose 
[III] 


THE    LEGEND    OF    THE    CHRISTMAS    ROSE 

thrown  to  you  over  the  Eden  barrier  which  ex- 
cludes you  from  its  glory, — take  it." 

Our  greatest  punishment  would  be  the  grati- 
fication of  our  lowest  aims.  The  Judge  saw 
the  thought  in  the  man's  heart,  read  the  joy, 
with  which  the  sense  of  possessing  all  the 
beauty  of  the  world  filled  it,  and  told  him  he 
was  welcome  thus  to  esteem  the  mere  hangings 
of  the  vestibule  of  the  Palace  of  the  Supreme. 
The  man  read  his  error  in  the  scorn  of  the 
awful  gift  and  asked  for  Art  in  the  place  of 
Nature.  That,  too,  was  concealed;  he  should 
obtain  the  one  form  the  sculptors  had  labored 
to  abstract,  the  one  face  the  painters  tried  to 
portray ;  the  perfection  in  their  soul  which  these 
only  hinted  at. 

But  the  man  was  made  to  see  that  the  perfec- 
tion of  form,  the  completeness  of  earthly  things 
that  can  only  serve  earth's  ends,  transferred 
to  a  future  state,  would  be  the  dreariest  de- 
ficiency. Neither  the  World  nor  the  World  of 
Art  could  suffice  to  satisfy  his  disembodied 
state,  and  he  cried  in  anguish: 

"Mind  is  best— 
I  will  seize  mind,  forego  the  rest." 

And  again  it  was  answered  to  him  that  all 

[112] 


MAKING    ROOM    FOR    CHRISTMAS 

the  best  of  Mind  on  earth,  the  intuitions,  the 
grasps  of  guess,  the  efforts  of  the  finite  to  com- 
prehend the  infinite,  the  gleams  of  heaven 
which  come  to  sting  with  hunger  for  the  full 
light  of  God,  the  inspiration  of  poetry,  the 
truth  hidden  in  fable, — all  these  were  God's 
part,  and  in  no  wise  to  be  considered  as  in- 
herent in  the  mind  of  man.  Loving  God,  he 
loves  His  inspirations;  bereft  of  them,  in  the 
world  he  had  chosen,  Mind  could  not  avail  to 
light  the  cloud  he  had  entered. 

And  so  the  bleeding  spirit  of  the  humbled 
man  prays  for  love  alone.  And  God  said,  "Is 
this  thy  final  choice?  Love  is  the  best?  'Tis 
somewhat  late !  Love  was  all  about  thee  curled 
in  its  mightiness  around  all  thou  hadst  to  do 
with.  Take  the  show  of  love  for  the  name's 
sake,  but  remember  who  created  thee  to  love, 
died  for  love  of  thee  and  thou  didst  refuse  to 
believe  the  story  on  the  ground  that  the  love 
was  too  much." 

So  the  man  awoke,  and  behold  it  was  only  a 
dream.  Only  a  dream,  but  its  design  is  to 
show  any  man  who  dreams  it,  the  everlasting 
truth  that  it  is  always  best  to  choose  the  best; 
it  is  always  best  to  love  the  best;  it  is  always 
best  to  give  the  best  room  to  the  Master  of  the 
Inn. 

[113] 


iliiill 

lit: 


